DALE CLARK’S DARK SHADOWS book four: DESTINY

 

DALE CLARK’S DARK SHADOWS book four:

DESTINY

Book Four of a continuing Dark Shadows story

 

 

CHAPTER ONE

On the beach, Angelique is more defiant to Judah than ever before and they both realize it but either way, her powers are no match for a fully returned Judah and he walks away…and she follows.

 

Julia and Barnabas at the Old House discuss Joe and then go up to a bedroom to see how he is. Joe knows Angelique is not Mrs. Sky Rumson but is Angelique and he also knows she is here because of Barnabas. He believes she is from hell. Barnabas wants to help Joe. Julia lies to Joe about NOT sending him back to Wyndecliff. Since Joe knows he cannot kill Angelique, he can stop her coming here if he kills Barnabas. He attacks Barnabas, choking him but Julia gives Joe a sedative. Joe seems to remember what Barnabas did to Maggie and to him and Maggie together.

 

Quentin finds Vicki in Collinwood listening to the sea. He asks her where she would rather be, and she says where she is now. He explains that she does not have to be brave for him and she says she knows she does not have to but that this is the truth: she’d rather be where she is right now. “And I know I don’t have to pretend anything with you. You don’t know what a nice feeling that is.”

 

She has decided not to tell Elizabeth and Roger the truth (that she—having been back in time for a while---is their mother!) for now. Quentin says, “I can understand that.”  He stops short of telling her about himself and his past because her comments, which almost make him do just that, seem to imply she knows something about him that he never told her. He mentions that Petofi is dead and that Barnabas, he and Julia fought Petofi. He does not mention Angelique.

 

Vicki asks how Quentin knew Petofi and while Quentin admits he knew Petofi from before, he would rather not discuss it further and she agrees. He drinks at least two Scotch drinks. While it is not specifically mentioned (I think), Vicki has one, too, as she thanks Quentin for the night cap and wants to go off to bed. Carolyn came in and felt she interrupted something between the two of them.

 

He finds Carolyn with books on the occult, belonging to Stokes. She has become more and more fascinated with the occult and feels it would do good to study it at length. She notes something is going on between he and Vicki and she tells him she approves, which Quentin takes as her fishing for a conversation about it which he denies her. “Now don’t go and make something out of nothing,” he tells Carolyn about him and Vicki.

 

Carolyn thinks Quentin should understand the value of knowing about the supernatural. She apologizes if she offended him, but he tells her she did not.

 

 

Julia tells Barnabas that Joe should never have been released. He was released by a young doctor with very different ideas from her own. When she explains that this happened because she hadn’t been spending enough time at her own hospital to supervise the staff, he feels it is his fault, but she admits it is her fault. He didn’t realize how much she gave up and left her career in a shambles. She takes full responsibility for all of it.

 

In order for her medallion to work, the subject has to have some trust in Julia and Joe Haskell does not. Julia is not sure that admitting Joe into Wyndecliffe is in Joe’s best interest. Barnabas answers, “Right now I’m thinking more of my own best interest. If Haskell starts talking, someone might listen.”

 

Julia sort of defends Angelique when he blames her for confronting Joe. Despite all the things they had suffered throughout the years at her hands, Julia had developed a strange relationship with Angelique. Angelique had chosen not to tell Barnabas of the sacrifice she made in order to save them. Julia holds a certain respect for Angelique now.

 

Barnabas warns Julia that the Mask might bring out Angelique’s dark side and she may prove more of a threat than Petofi did.

 

2am: George Patterson drives to the lonely stretch of road that leads to Findley’s Cove, one of teenagers and young lovers’ favorite spots. There was an old 63 Ford Galaxie. New deputy Farrel Grigsby and his partner Bill Newsome are on the scene of a dead man. The dead man, pulled out of a car had his throat ripped open so badly he was almost decapitated. It has been nearly a year since the last attack. Newsome tells Patterson that there is another one twenty yards away, a girl who was trying to get away when whoever or whatever did this, caught up to her. Patterson silently vows to catch the person responsible for this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER TWO

Morning: Roger comes downstairs to a worried Maggie, who feels something has happened to Joe. Maggie gets an IDK why. She knows Joe has not been in his hotel room all night. After asking her if she should see Joe so soon after he was released from a mental hospital, Roger apologizes. Maggie goes for a walk.

 

From her bedroom window, Vicki sees Maggie going for a walk. Vicki looks at a photo album of a young girl (Liz) and a shirtless boy (Roger) who is holding up a large fish, her own children. Julia arrives and asks Vicki if she wants her if she wants her to give her sleeping pills. Vicki declines for now. Though Julia is here as a friend, not as a doctor, sometimes she admits Vicki gets both. Vicki says, “Right now, I really don’t know what I need.”

 

Vicki also gets an IDU how such a thing is possible (that she is Liz and Roger’s mother). She also admits that being married to Jamison for ten years has given her a rather caustic sense of humor.

 

For Julia  and Carolyn it had only been a few weeks  since they brought Vicki back to the present but for Vicki it was ten years.

 

Vicki also says, “Time seems to have always been my enemy.”  She feels time is running out but when Julia asks what she means, Vicki gives an IDK.

 

Something nameless and vague is making Vicki feel uneasy as if time is running out for her. Vicki is not planning on telling Roger and Elizabeth yet. Julia will drop off some sedatives off this afternoon.   

 

Vicki tells Julia that Maggie is headed for the Old House. Julia planned on telling Maggie about Joe this morning. At the Old House, Maggie is deep in thought when Barnabas opens the door and invites her in. Inside, she had memories. Maggie says IDK if I’ll ever be able to move beyond it, what he did to her.

 

She thinks this conflict between them was something only time would ease. Perhaps. When Maggie inquires about Joe, Barnabas tells her the truth: Joe is here. When she asks to see Joe, Barnabas says, “IDK if that is wise, Maggie.”

 

They find Josette’s room open and Willie on the floor. They ask where Haskell is, and Willie says IDK. Joe hit him when Willie came in with food. Joe, Barnabas figures, must have developed a tolerance to sedatives.

 

Vicki recalls her taking care of Jamison before work, going over the lessons for her children with a governess, and then having coffee. Vicki tells Liz that she is not much of a breakfast person but Liz comments she used to be. Liz says, “I don’t even know where you were or what happened to you.”  Quentin told Liz not to press Vicki for details.

 

 

Liz looks in the album and recalls that their nanny at the time, named Jerilyn, was a stickler for neatness. Liz doesn’t really remember feeling close to any of their nannies. She didn’t dislike them, but they were all rather remote.

 

Vicki asks Liz what it was like growing up in this house. Liz answers, “Secure, if somewhat isolated.”   Jamison was not an overly warm man, but Roger and Liz knew he loved them. He was strict but fair. Liz confesses that sometimes it was lonely and wondered what life would have been like if her mom hadn’t died in the fire. In a way she abandoned Liz as Liz had abandoned her. As they talk, Liz spots a man looking in the bay window at them.

 

 

Maggie tells a returning Julia what happened with Joe escaping. Julia thinks the police finding Joe might not be best for him and tells Maggie this. Maggie thinks Julia might be right and gets in an IDK. Maggie asks Julia to drive her back to Collinwood, worried about Joe and thinking of the time he tried to commit suicide. She will call Sheriff Patterson. Julia will drive her to Collinwood.

 

At the House by the Sea, Angelique vs Judah. Judah thinks he has information that only the “master” has, and he will not reveal what that is to Angelique. He claims to have taught her everything she knows and that makes him think he is still more powerful than she is. He calls her Miranda all the time. He also seems to think that she never truly committed herself to the Master. She is ruled by the human side of her nature. He tells her to give in. He claims there are hardly any human left in her. “You are not a woman but a demon. A fact which you seem to repeatedly forget.”

 

She would not let herself be goaded into rash action. “I have always considered myself a woman first and a devoted servant to the master.”

 

He says he remembers her abilities as a woman and her pleasures of the flesh. “You should know that no mortal will ever truly love you and that is the only way you will ever be free of your powers.”

 

Rejecting him, Judah lets her go to warn her friends of the coming disaster. He will have the mask with or without her help. He tells her she has to decide whose side she stands on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER THREE

Maggie has the sheriff at Collinwood. Julia feels the sooner they find him and bring him to her the better. Carolyn thinks the man at the bay window that her mother saw was Joe. Patterson informs them of the double murder of a couple of kids from Rockport who died at Findley’s Cove last night. People clawed to bits as if they’d been attacked by some wild animal.

 

Carolyn detects Quentin, Barnabas and Julia all know something about this. After Carolyn takes Maggie and the sheriff outside, Quentin tells Barnabas and Julia that the last time he heard from Chris was months ago. Chris, Sabrina and Amy were in Virginia. Quentin has Chris’ phone number in his room. There is a cottage he is renting in the Smokey Mountains. Julia thinks Chris would contact them if he was back in Collinsport.

 

Maggie spilled tea on her sleeve so goes to her room where a hiding Joe contacts her. “Joe, thank God you’re all right.”   Joe wants to get out of the house, out of the town and to a place where no one has heard the name of the Collins family. Maggie gets a “I didn’t know what happened to you.”

 

Typo: Maggie says, “We’re going to get you the all help you need.”

 

Joe thinks she will leave him and tells her she left him before. She never visited or inquired after the first few weeks. She will never file anyone or anything away in her mind again. She promises Joe she will not leave him again. Joe remembers the time they tried to leave and were stopped. Joe wants to send them back to hell and leaves Maggie.

 

The people renting the cabin that Chris was renting had never heard of Chris. The owner of the property told Quentin that Chris vacated the cabin over six months ago and left no forwarding address.

 

David enters and finds his book on the piano, the RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH. David finds it hard to believe people could be that cruel. Julia says, “It’s hard to believe that you’re studying in the middle of the summer.”

 

Typo: David: “I like readying about the World Wars.” Hallie went to visit her friends in NY. David will be going off to Frost Academy in another month. “The great motivator, boredom,” Quentin teased, “I know it well.”

 

After David left, Quentin recalls that he saw Dauchau shortly after it was liberated. He was on a special mission for the Allies. Julia seems to be blocking out some painful memories. Pressed, he tells her he was in a special branch of the military. He also was in the first world war, too, but his motives to be in that one were less than altruistic. Witnessing some of the horrors of Hitler made Quentin realize he had to help stop him.

 

Quentin leaves to find Joe.

 

Julia recalls her father seemed more of a visiting uncle than an actual parent. She recalls her first trip to Germany with her tense mother. She and her mother, an American woman, has continued to live in the US after her father was called back to the Fatherland. He was reluctant to leave his family, but Henric Hoffman had been a loyal follower of her Fuerher and proud to have been requested to return to Germany by Hitler himself to work on some top secret project.

 

She remembered her father had changed and was consumed by his work. Her parents argued. One day, Julia cajoled her father to take her to his laboratory. Julia wanted to go back again and did so many times even though her mother didn’t want her to and fought with the father about it.

 

She tried to forget the horrors she witnessed almost thirty years ago.

 

Gerald Miller knocked at Collinwood to be answered by Mrs. Sarah Johnson. It had been seven years since he last saw her. He was supposed to be here three hours ago. He tells her that the train was delayed in Bangor.  Gerald is her cousin. She claims he’s filled out and is not so skinny as he once was. She got him a job here. “The Collins family are good people and I’ve gone out on a limb for you.” 

 

Gerald knows a lot about horses and worked on a ranch in Colorado. He stutters.

 

Mrs. Johnson tells her that Carolyn is a big horseback rider. She instructs him to go clean out the stables. When she leaves, deciding she’s wasted enough time on him, he drops his smile. He hated having to be nice to that bitch. He needed the money.

 

Barnabas returns to the Old House and blames Angelique for Joe. She tells him they are in great danger and explains that Judah Zachary has returned. “He means to destroy us all,” she explains. They both know he wants the Mask. She asks him to leave today.

 

 

He refuses and she asks him why. It is because of Judah and because of her. “I can be the kind of woman that you want me to be. I told you once before that your love can make me into anything you desire.”

 

He seems unfair when he tells her that the desire has to be in her first. WHAT? Is there no making him happy?

 

Gerald is riding the horse Lightening, feeling summoned by the bright sunshine,  when he is intercepted by Judah. The man is not handsome, quite the contrary but there was something about him that he found very engaging. He knows Gerald and knows all about him. Judah tells Gerald that this is the path he is destined to take.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER FOUR

Barnabas stuns Julia by telling her Judah Zachary has returned. He sounded more negative than he intended to. Julia tries to convince him that Angelique has changed more than he knows and not for the first time, he wondered if Julia had more knowledge of the situation than he did. They wonder if Judah is responsible for the attacks and not Chris Jennings. Or maybe it is Chris under Judah’s control.

 

Vicki contemplates the idea of making new friends. Quentin arrives with a tray and two glasses with a pitcher of iced tea. Vicki asks why he didn’t call Mrs. Johnson. “My, you have been away a long time,” he jokes, rolling his eyes.

 

Vicki chuckled once again. “Has she gotten that bad?”

 

He thinks sometimes it is just easier to do something yourself. He claims it does get hot here in the summer. Vicki claims it is more pleasant than summer in NY. She says the Hammond Foundling Home was comfortable but not home, but Collinwood is, that she felt it was like home right from the beginning, and it is the only home she’s known. Quentin comments, “A romantic thought but some people wouldn’t believe that being destined to live at Collinwood to be a very uplifting experience.”

 

From her POV, Quentin hasn’t lived at Collinwood for very long, so she questions why he feels it is home to him. She feels he is talking to her in riddles. “This house does seem to have an appeal for all of us, despite everything that happens here.”

 

When she asks about how Petofi was defeated, he lets her know it was Angelique. Barnabas and Julia told Quentin that Vicki had encounters with her before. Vicki reads Quentin well and realizes he does know Angelique. “She nearly succeeded in destroying the entire Collins family,” Vicki explains.

 

He claims people do change and Vicki gets an impression he might be talking about himself.

 

An old man named Cyrus Carrington arrives to see Roger. He’s tried to reach Mrs. Wilson, Roger’s secretary, at the cannery but Roger is not getting his messages. When Quentin wonders what it is about women and why they find old men so charming and he goes to find Roger, Cyrus tells Vicki he always wanted to see this house and that it lives up to its reputation. When Vicki calls Quentin a member of her family, the old man says he knows he may be more than that. Roger puts Cyrus off and tells him to call Wilson again. Roger tells Vicki, who thinks that was a little rude, that that is one way to get rid of salesmen.

 

Vicki turns Carolyn’s invite to go horseback riding down to stay close in case Maggie needs her. She also encourages Carolyn to go and not stay cooped up in the house. Carolyn couldn’t lure David away to go riding. David’s been into his studies. Vicki thinks that is a surprise as she had to stand over him to make him study.

 

Gerald arrives to tell Carolyn that the horse Lightening. Vicki meets Gerald, Mrs. Johnson’s cousin.

 

 

Dr. Martha Peterson took over an hour to get away from another job on the other side of town. Carolyn thinks about how she thought they would be stuck with another Harry Johnson when Liz wanted to hire Mrs. Johnson’s cousin Gerald. The horse has a bacterial infection similar to pneumonia. She tells Carolyn that the sheriff has put a dusk to dawn curfew on the village. Another person was found murdered last night by the south docks.

 

Carolyn wondered where Gerald was going when he turned toward the path that led to the other properties on the estate.

 

 

Barnabas was tired. Vicki arrives and they talk about Angelique. He explains the situation has changed. He knows that he himself has done some terrible things in the past and things some day he shall be judged for them. He wants to try and give Angelique the same benefit of the doubt that he would want from others.

 

Vicki reminds him he is human now, Angelique is not.

 

She also gets an IDK when trying to figure if she can ever believe Angelique can change. “She’s responsible for a large part of the heartache and tragedy this family has known.”

 

Barnabas feels he must take some responsibility for the events that happened, both in the past and the present. Vicki feels he is remarkable and tries to understand his POV. She gets an IDK “…if things will ever be like they were but I want to at least try.”

 

Willie interrupts them about a delivery. “Yes, Willie,” Barnabas looked over at him, somewhat perturbed by his sudden appearance.

 

 Delivery men are here with that piece of antique furniture and they will not take Willie’s signature but want Barnabas’. He leaves and as Barnabas suggested Willie offers Vicki a drink. She does not want one but leaves.

 

Gerald is at the House by the Sea. Judah tells him he has a lovely voice. There is an altar in the drawing room. And a candelabra with black candles. Judah has given self confidence. He wants Gerald to pay someone a visit.

 

Midway between the Old House and Collinwood, Vicki hears howling. Another minute and she realized she was being followed. Something circled around the path and was attempting to cut her off. As she entered an opening she saw at the opposite edge the glowing eyes of the creature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER FIVE

 

Barnabas uses his cane to fight off the monster which lunged and knocked Vicki down, scratching her arm. It leaves and when she asks, he tells her what it was, “A werewolf.”

 

 

Julia bandages Vicki’s arm. Liz feels both Julia and Barnabas know more than they are telling her. She means to have a conversation with them both about this. Barnabas wonders to Julia where that conversation might end. Barnabas gets a IDK what you mean to Liz. Liz knows it was the same creature that once attacked Carolyn. Liz wishes they would trust her with what they know. Barnabas relates to Julia that Liz does not even know that Chris is a distant cousin, let alone that he has a secret: that he IS a werewolf. Vicki thinks about how she never believed in werewolves but “never believed in vampires either before coming to this house…or witches.

 

Quentin reminds them there was no full moon last night. Barnabas can’t help but think Judah is involved. Julia reminds them Chris has had episodes in the past where there was no full moon and yet he changed into the werewolf.

 

David on the beach sun tanning in bathing suit falls asleep. He feels a tingling sensation at the base of his skull that covers his entire body. He dreams of walking in a fog and all earthly troubles vanish leaving only a fiery sun above. Laura is calling to him to tell him she will always be near, that he will know the path he is destined to travel, and then they can be together forever. She also explains there are barriers between them, forces which wish to keep them separated. He wants them to be together. He never wants to leave this place and when he wakes up he hears her voice, “Then nothing can stop you from fulfilling your destiny.”

 

Julia gives Maggie a sedative to slip into Joe’s beverage. Maggie demanded that Joe not be brought to Wyndecliffe, causing Julia to almost refuse to take part in getting Joe to a hospital facility. Maggie had gotten three recommendations for the same place: St Eligius  in Boston. Joe arrives and wants to get himself and Maggie out of Collinsport. Joe claims he heard Chris in the woods last night. He drinks the water she has for him.

 

Dr. Stone’s office called Julia and he will oversee Joe’s care for the ambulance ride to Boston. He is waiting for Maggie and Joe in town at the hospital. Maggie thanks Julia. Maggie feels she was not there for Joe in the past but now will not abandon him. Julia wishes she could have done more for Joe and Maggie.

 

Carolyn sees that Lightening was better and on his feet. Gerald is there, too. Carolyn asks him to dinner. She will take him to the Embers. He has a dinged Ford truck so she will drive as his suggestion.

 

 

Maggie stops by the Old House to tell Willie and Barnabas she is leaving. When Willie, alone with Maggie before she talks to Barnabas, asks if she will come back, she says, “IDK, Willie. But I don’t think so.”

 

When Willie goes upstairs to get Barnabas, Maggie runs into Angelique, whom she recognizes as the one who bit Joe when she and Nicolas appeared at her door the first time she and Joe tried to escape Collinsport. Angelique tells her she has no malice toward Joe but has hated every incarnation of Maggie she ever knew: Kitty, Josette, Emily. Angelique tells her she will give Barnabas her fond farewell. Maggie leaves.

 

Gerald contemplates the change in himself in front of a mirror. Judah was in his mind, calling to him. In his truck, Gerald hurries to Judah at the House by the Sea, ignoring the blond woman calling him (Carolyn).

 

CHAPTER SIX

Following Gerald, Carolyn goes inside the House by the Sea and finds black draperies in the drawing room and an altar. When Carolyn confronts Gerald, Judah makes himself known. When she threatens to go to the sheriff, Judah grabs her arm. Judah makes Gerald leave with his instructions for the evening. Judah knows of Carolyn’s interest in the supernatural, fueled by an annoying and arrogant old man (Stokes). Judah will bring forth memories in her mind.

 

Quentin goes through photocopies of old newspapers he got from the Bedford library. Before Julia and Barnabas changed history in 1840, Quentin’s mind had been broken and destroyed by Judah. He recalls he killed his wife in an enraged frenzy. He thinks of Chris. He has six silver bullets. Liz tells Quentin that Carolyn would not listen and went out on a date with Gerald and left about an hour ago. Vicki asks Quentin, “You know what it is, don’t you.” He admits he does. She asks if he knows who it is. She knows he knows more, “I’ve lived in this house too long not to recognized the signs.”

 

Liz calls the sheriff and the restaurant. She finds out that Gerald and Carolyn never arrived.

 

The sheriff and his men are coming. Quentin goes outside to look for Carolyn.

 

Judah knows others have shared Carolyn’s light: Millicent Collins. He tells her that the others will come to her without warning and through her will live again. She is not sure who she is.

 

 

Quentin finds a crying Carolyn in the woods. She calls her clothes disgraceful and tells him she is not one of the sluts he visits down in the village. When he tries to get back to the house she screamed, “Unhand me, Quentin! My father will not stand for your treating me like this.”

 

Carolyn urges Quentin to shoot the werewolf when it shows up. He told the beast he didn’t want to do this and it leaves, Quentin’s shot missing it.

 

Carolyn tells Quentin it was the same animal in her dream. She tells Quentin her name: Charity Trask!

 

Angelique felt as if she were being watched. She knew she was. She did a spell of disclosure but nothing was revealed. She feels almost satisfied that her nerves may mean she has some humanity left in her. She hopes never to see Maggie again. Barnabas asks her about Maggie, when he comes into the drawing room. When she explains he has more important matters to occupy his time, he explains she was a very dear friend. She tells him the Mask is hidden in plain sight. She is sure Judah will never find it.

 

Quentin arrives and explains he took Carolyn to Julia at Collinwood. He tells them that Carolyn is acting and talking as if she is Charity Trask. Angelique knows this is a trick of Judah’s. He tells her he will be careful. He and Quentin leave in Quentin’s car.

 

Angelique arrives at Gallows Hill Cemetery a half hour after leaving the Old House. She had watched, three centuries ago, when the unmarked grave be built. Gerald Miller from behind a large mausoleum, watched her.

 

Was she stupid enough to hide it in the same underground lair that it was hidden in during 1840’s nightmare? If so, she’s stupid.

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER SEVEN

Carolyn is in the mind of Charity Trask or rather Charity’s memories were now completely taking over Carolyn’s thoughts. She thinks Liz looks like Cousin Naomi. Carolyn comes out of it but says, “IDK how long I can hold on!” She then turns into the Pansy Faye persona, speaking in cockney. She uses the word “ducks” and says she knew a Carolyn once and they did a show in Atlantic City. But she was a phony, she was the one that really drew them in with her second sight.

 

She reacts to Quentin but then when Liz and Barnabas enter the room, Liz returning, as Pansy, she accuses Barnabas of killing “her” Carl and shouts out, “Vampire! Vampire!”

 

NOTE: Dale is absolutely a wonderful writer and his plotting of the entire saga is amazing. He has some wonderful things happening here that the show never got to do and I love that he has a love for the entire time periods but also how they affect the present day family and the present day itself. It’s a shame these books are not available more widely and/or not published professionally, they’re far more entertaining than most of the ones professionally published, make that ALL of the ones, all of them and the more recent trio of books, too.

 

I can hear the actors speaking these lines, see the scenes in my head and hear the music that would have been used by Cobert and the editing team. These books are marvelous and while at times talky (this one isn’t as it has a lot of action), JUST like the TV show, and even better as they respect the characters in the present day more than the series writers and Dan Curtis ever did. Dale LOVES them and DARK SHADOWS as a whole and it shines on every page, in every line of dialog by every character. Dale is amazing.

 

Julia returned from a consultation with Dr. Stone concerning Joe. She looks over Carolyn. Leticia comes through Carolyn and knows Julia, of course. Leticia tells Julia it’s been almost 15 years. Julia wonders if Carolyn was actually being possessed by these spirits or if someone was merely causing Carolyn to perform as them. Was Judah so strong to call back these spirits into Carolyn’s body?

 

 

Julia takes out her medallion. In the final days of the war, this medallion was given to her father by Hitler. She wished she had not seen the history book David had shown her. She could not forgive her father or herself.

 

NOTE: That Dale gives Julia this background is a surprising and shocking detail.

 

Liz questions Barnabas. Barnabas at one point says, “I’m afraid I don’t understand what you mean, Elizabeth.”

 

“I think you do,” She said, not wavering, “There have been many strange thins that have happened here. Things of which you have always seemed to have some secret knowledge.”

 

He turns away to hide his panic and tells her she is mistaken. She insists, “I’ve never forced the issue in the past because I’ve had a certain respect for your privacy but I can no longer afford to stand on ceremony.”

 

She tells him she knows he would never put any of them willingly, in jeopardy.

 

When Liz presses him and Quentin is present in the room, too, they admit that a warlock means the family harm. The conversation turns before they name him to her.

 

When Julia returns, she tries to explain that Carolyn is exhibiting personalities of people who have lived before. Liz says, “I don’t understand what you’re saying, Julia.”

 

Julia believes Carolyn is acting as past incarnations of her former selves, past incarnations. Julia admits to Liz that she has met some of these past incarnations. Julia gave Carolyn a sedative. Vicki is with her now.

 

Barnabas hopes to regain some of Liz’s trust. Liz says, “You misunderstand me. I never lost any of my trust in you. I only wish you would learn to trust in me more.”

 

Quentin says, “It appears that cousin Elizabeth isn’t as in the dark about things as we’ve always thought.”

 

 

Julia thinks that Judah is after more than just revenge. When Quentin brings up the werewolf attacks, Barnabas says, “But we don’t know for certain if the two are related. So much has happened these past weeks…First Blair, then Petofi, and now Judah. Where will it all end?”

 

Julia yells out Petofi’s name but then says she needs some medications for Carolyn from the Old House. She will take her car and she has her pentagram so she will be safe. Barnabas and Quentin think that Julia was in a bit of a hurry to get out of “here.”

 

 

When Judah arrives, Gerald is comforted to no longer be alone with Angelique. Angelique tells Judah that she has not turned her back on their master but he does not agree. Judah explains to her that Gerald followed her and he now has the Mask. He has been sent here by the Master as the harbinger of a New Age. A person at Collinwood, a very special person who once seduced to the Master’s will shall have within them the power to open the gates of Hell and then the demons shall rule again.

 

Angelique knows if this is true than satan shall be triumphant. A coldness inside her threatens to consume her. Judah asks her to join him but she tells him she will prefer to be fully informed before she makes her decision. When she asks who will be this person, he answers, “Victoria Winters.”

 

 

Marvelous.

 

 

For the past two nights, Vicki was unable to relax. She had a feeling that something about to happen was not going to be good. She thinks back to the farm and Peter in 1799. She had refused to listen to Peter’s same sensation back then. There is also a wonderful description of a late spring afternoon, humidity, thunderclouds, heat, all in 1799 or so. She wonders if this is the end for her.

 

Liz arrives to stay with Carolyn. “Sometimes I wonder why we stay in this house. After all the thins that have happened, you would think we’d pack our bags and leave. Carolyn has wanted to on more than one occasion. I wish now I had encouraged her.”

 

“We mustn’t think that way.”

 

“Sometimes I feel that we stay because we are destined to do so---that somewhere along the way I lost control of my own life.”

 

“I know…” A storm, lightening. A storm was moving toward the shore.

 

 

Again, Clark’s prose and text and dialog are just wonderful, so great, I feel the need to transcribe most of it. This is how the show should have gone on if it were not cancelled. Wonderful stuff.

 

 

This is not merely a fan fic.

 

 

Angelique, at the Old House, asks how Carolyn is and tells a returning  Barnabas she asked because she is concerned for her. “You almost make me believe that,” he says.

 

 

“Is it really so difficult to believe that I can be genuinely concerned for another human being?”

 

He stopped himself. It was always so easy for their most innocuous conversations to degenerate into an argument. “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for.”

 

“I’ve always been rather fond of Carolyn, actually. She’s a very strong willed individual, yet very sensitive.”

 

“It seems strange to hear you say such things.”

 

She admits it is strange to her, too. She admits it was easier not to feel. Barnabas recalls his own need to lock away his emotions and feelings to some locked compartment in his soul rather than deal with the outcome of his actions. Necessary evils could be justified if he turned down the volume of his feelings. 

 

“I understand,” he tells her.

 

She explains that Judah summoned her and told her he has the mask. She also explains that Gerald is under Judah’s control. He followed her to the tomb and now Judah has the mask.

 

Barnabas asks if such a release of hell’s demons is possible. She says IDK.

 

“Judah is not inclined to boasting. There must be some truth in what he says.”

 

She explains everything including that Vicki will be the one to do such a thing. She asks him to leave again. She also says IDK if he can be stopped.

 

She slips that Judah is motivated by revenge, hatred and jealousy…he has separated and defeated them in the past and will do so again. She asks if he trusts her and he says, “Yes.”

 

Barnabas hesitated only a moment.

 

His old doubts and fears were pushed away by the look on her face.

 

She is going to show him what he has forgotten. “I am going to show you the slate that death has wiped clean. But the imprint is still there…waiting for you to remember.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER EIGHT

Cast of Characters

Amadaeus Collins…Louis Edmonds

Purity Collins….Joan Bennett

Byron Collins…Jonathan Frid

Emily Longmore-Collins…Kathryn Leigh Scott

Judah Zachary…Michael McGuire

Miranda DuVal…Lara Parker

Jeremy Miller…James Storm

 

Early Fall, 1692-Bedford

 

Purity is giving Miranda instructions about helping out in the kitchen at least until Cook can return to her duties. Cook is ill. Purity admits the house has run better since Miranda joined them. Byron comes in and is Purity’s son. He brings words on Prudence Courtney. Her body was found floating in the bay this morning, stabbed like all the others.

 

 

They discuss his father and how the father is hunting for the evil that is doing these murders. Byron sounds almost disrespectful but he has respect…and he thinks also fear, for his father. When Purity leaves the room, Mirand and Byron kiss.

 

He claims he will protect her if they are found out.

 

He is engaged to be married to Emily. He loved Emily once and might again, she claims. He claims his true feeling is for Miranda. Amadaeus centers and send her to get Purity to meet him in the study and asks if Purity went to see Reverend Blanchard. Bryon tells his father he is having second doubts about his upcoming marriage. The joining of the two families is what Amadaeus is concerned about. Amadaeus knows Byron is involved with the hand maiden. Byron vs Amadaeus.

 

His father threatens to disinherit him if he continues his liaison with Miranda.

 

Instead of defending Miranda and their love, there is only silence from Byron. Miranda is in the hallway waiting for him to speak up against his father but there is only silence. She has anger and fear now.

 

 

Judah tells Jeremy Miller that Andrew Bronson and his accusations will be dealt with. Jeremy wants to remove this threat to Judah. They are in front of the livery stables. Miranda comes to Judah and Judah dismissed Gerald.

 

Gerald thinks Miranda could be a threat. Judah knows that within her is a great desire to be something other than what she is. “And that desire will bring her to me.”

 

 

Typo: Miranda uses the word “to” instead of “too.”

 

Judah talks to her as if he thinks she can be more than a servant and knows he strikes a chord in her as she pulls away and leaves.

 

 

Emily Longmore feels Byron’s pulling away from her and mentions to him that she feels he is having doubts about the marriage. If he didn’t meet Miranda, he thinks, he would have been perfectly happy to live out his life with Emily. She watched for months as he grew distant and removed from her. She knew it was Miranda but Emily had no intention of letting Miranda stop her from being with the man she loved.

 

A woman in her late forties, Matilda, a servant, brings Judah to see Emily at the Longmore home. Emily has trouble placing Judah’s age. Emily is engaged to marry Byron in little over a month. Emily has called Judah to their home and her father was not home. Emily knows Judah has an interest in Miranda. He figures Emily heard all manner of stories about him from Amadaeus. He asks if she has anything that belongs to her fiancé.

 

Bryon’s mother taught him to follow his heart if he wanted true happiness. Bryon decides to tell his father he will not marry Emily because he loves Miranda.

 

Though Byron’s thoughts reveal he loved “them” both, it’s unclear if he means his parents or Miranda and Emily!

 

As he moves to go tell his father he will be with Miranda, Bryon is hit with dizziness and starts to fell as if his thoughts and feelings were being replaced with a new personality. He felt his very self was being sculpted and remolded by another.

 

He felt shame thinking about Miranda and now concludes she would have be sent away. It was evening.

 

 

Mid day: Miranda is being sent away. Amadaeus booked passage for her on a coach to Salem where with his recommendation she would find employment with an old business associate. When Amadaeus explains that Bryon himself requested this, she sought him out and found out it was true. She believed she was not worthy of his love and attention. Hurt and then angry, Miranda goes to Judah. He has much to teach her.

 

 

December, 1692

 

Emily and Bryon are on their way to a ship that would take them to NY. Emily is glad her brief involvement with Judah never came to light. After they had been married, Byron felt unresponsive, sullen and quiet. Miranda’s involvement with Judah upset Bryon.

 

Amadaeus and Purity’s deaths had nearly overcome Bryon with grief. There had been too many strange and unexplained deaths. Bryon watched the lifeless, snow dusted world slip past as the carriage bumped along the road. Emily says it would be good to see his brother again.  Bryon’s plans were to be free of this marriage  in a matter of weeks. He planned to be with Miranda to travel the world.

 

 

 

Bryon offered to his father to testify against Judah but his father refused. Miranda stepped forward and sent Judah to his death. Bryon’s father remained stubborn about Bryon keeping the family secrets even when it seemed as if Judah would not be convicted. Miranda stepped forward and sent him to his death.

 

Bryon had confronted Judah in his cell and Judah confessed everything, telling him he received the personal item from Emily. Before she was given safe passage from Bedford, Bryon met with Miranda and they made plans to meet in NY. He would have his marriage annulled and they would go wherever they wished and try to forget the horror of this winter.

 

A masked rider who wore an ebony mask rode up along side their carriage and threw the driver off. The rider abandons his horse and take the reins of the carriage himself. The man screamed, “Judah lives!”  The madman drives off the cliff, killing Bryon, Emily and himself. And the poor horse or horses!

 

Miranda was taught by Judah who had given her powers which she managed to conceal from the Citizen’s Tribunal and from Bryon.

 

When he did not arrive she was concerned but then two weeks passed. She made her way to his brother’s home and learned the news. She posed as a friend of Emily’s in order to gain the trust of the family, Bryon’s brother. She felt she was dead already and would leave this land.

 

“We had so little time together, my darling. But somehow, I promise you, we will be together again.”

 

Okay, I have to say that I’m glad there was not a drawn out 1692 sequence but I think here…maybe the TV show would have had just that. Instead, this chapter feels rushed and here, I’m not sure that Clark didn’t blow it. I mean on TV it felt as if Miranda didn’t have powers and that she must have lived out her life, died and then been reincarnated as Angelique instead of living into the future. I mean there was talk of Angelique having a mother and her mother being from Martinique.

 

WIKIA has this to say: “Miranda DuVal (1692)

Angélique was born as Miranda DuVal during the 17th Century in the West Indies of Martinique. During her early teen years, Angélique traveled to America, where she became a faithful and loyal follower of a warlock named Judah Zachery. Judah took Angélique under his wing and taught her the sacred arts of magic and witchcraft. One year later, both Angélique and Judah were captured and exposed as witches by the civil authorities. Fearing her fate of death, Angélique betrayed Judah by testifying against him in exchange for her freedom.”

 

 

Not sure that’s right either!

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER NINE

Barnabas remembers and calls Angelique by the name of Miranda. She explains, “We have all of us lived many lives. Some more than others.”

 

She explains that when they first met in Martinique she knew only that she loved him and she did not “know” he was Byron. She only knew after Ben tried to destroy her with the torch in the Tower Room in 1796. She claims that the Master punished her by taking away her knowledge of the present and the future while she was in 1840 but she did have knowledge of Judah from the past. She asks him to leave with her and he is tempted but says, “…the fact remains I am Barnabas Collins now. I can’t let the dreams and hopes of the past cloud my judgement of the present.”

 

He intends to stay and find a way to destroy Judah but she says now that he has the mask, she’s not sure that is possible.

 

Patterson called Roger to find Gerald for questioning. He’s questioning everyone new in town. There was another murder of a girl on the road leading to town. Liz knows it is not an animal and tells Roger so. When Liz says Carolyn was so fond of Gerald, who is missing, Roger says, “Forgive my saying so but Carolyn’s judgement of men leaves something to be desired.”

 

Liz says, “Our own track record had hardly been testimony to our good judgement. Carolyn follows her heart. I won’t fault her for that.”

 

Roger was against hiring that wretched son of Mrs. Johnson in the past.

 

Despite occasional bouts of selfishness, Liz knew she could always count on her brother for support. It had been a long and difficult journey to get to that point—for both of them.

 

“I was telling Vicki IDU why we stay her,” Liz told Roger.

 

“Collinwood is our home. It always has been and always will be.”

 

“But not always for you. You moved away to go to college and left again after you were married.”

 

He claims he was drawn back by the siren call. Liz points out sirens lured sailors to their deaths. Liz wonders if Carolyn will ever recover. “We will have stayed too long. Always assuming that we could escape what this house has done to us. But we can’t escape. We are held here, all of us, prisoners of our own fate.”

 

 

When Quentin leaves to get a book from his room, Carolyn wakes up as Leticia, contemplates how different Collinwood is and about the lights and leaves, heading for Rose Cottage. Quentin pursues her.

 

 

Barnabas stood atop Widow’s Hill. Here, Dale outdoes himself by describing this scene and Barnabas’ thoughts about Josette plummeting to her death again. He feels he truly loves Angelique and that in way diminishes his love for Josette, even Emily, or Kitty and how many others? And perhaps that was the point. To love instead of hate.

 

Julia arrives, looking for Angelique. She asks him to trust her even though she does not want to discuss what she will with Angelique about how to defeat Judah, possibly. He trusts her as much as he trusts Angelique and he does trust them both.

 

 

He explains about the life she showed him almost 300 years ago. “I…I don’t understand,” Julia says.

 

He tells Julia he loves Angelique. Barnabas apologizes to Julia, telling her he never meant to hurt her. “I’ve never meant to hurt you.” Huh? Really?  “You must know how dear you are to me…”

 

 

Julia leaves and cries in the woods. Dreams die hard and are heedless of time.

 

Gerald is with a prostitute in the House by the Sea. He picked her up at the docks. Judah is in the room with them. She says IDK what you’re talking about. Gerald, disgusted by himself, holds her ankles as she lies down on the altar and Judah plunges a knife into her chest.

 

 

CHAPTER  TEN

Julia runs from the howling in the woods to the Old House where she talks with Angelique. Angelique and Barnabas in another time line with this Angelique faced Petofi after leaving for a time. He had destroyed everyone at Collinwood and then killed Barnabas upon the return of Barnabas and Angelique. Angelique used the I Ching to come back and change history and defeated Petofi.

 

Julia asked what happened to Judah in that other timeline. Angelique says, “I…IDK.”

 

Julia surmises that somehow Petofi dealt with Judah. Julia propose a séance to get Petofi to tell them how he dealt with Judah. Angelique tells her a séance is not necessary because she can summon Petofi’s spirit. She needs some time to meditate.

 

When he appears, Petofi calls Judah the devil’s son. Angelique makes a shining scimitar appear and harm Petofi when he refuses to tell her how to defeat Judah. He explains the fire of the urn can destroy Judah. He vanishes and Julia knows that it is Laura Collins that can defeat Judah.

 

When Quentin catches up to Carolyn she thinks his flashlight is something he whipped up in his lab. Her second sight is sensed by the feeling at the base of her skull. She sees Collinwood being torn apart by groups of dead people who were killed by Judah. She sees a man carrying a woman’s head. They hear the werewolf and Quentin realized he didn’t have his gun.

 

 

Judah is in Eagle Hill Cemetery with the Mask. He finds a section of cutthroats and murderers and summons them to rise to walk the earth again.

 

11pm: Julia meets Barnabas at the Old House. When Liz explains about Carolyn, he starts toward the door but Judah is there and confronts them all. Judah knows Liz and says, “Hello, Elizabeth, it’s been a long time.”

 

Liz tells Barnabas and Julia that Judah is Vicki’s father!

 

NOTE: I’m not so sure about that plot beat but I’ll give it a chance! It’s pretty unexpected.

 

 

The werewolf changes into a man. Cyrus Carrington who explains everything he told them was a lie. He tells Quentin he is his son and he intends to rob him of everything Quentin robbed from him…starting with his life. The old man turns into the wolf man again and prepares to attack Quentin and Carolyn.

 

 

Barnabas gets a You Don’t Know when he explains a bit of Judah.

 

Liz says IDU what’s gotten into you…to Barnabas.

 

Vicki comes down and Judah tells her to come to her father, the man who gave her life. Vicki seems to fall under his spell, aware that this was her destiny.

 

Judah strikes out at Barnabas. Judah kills him. “You may cease your vain attempts, Doctor. Barnabas Collins is dead!”

 

 

To be continued in…DISASTER.

 

 

COMING IN FALL 1994 : DISASTER.

 

WONDERFUL. Though this ends on a cliffhanger for EVERYONE, this manages to also tie up some loose ends in a shocking way. I’m still unsure about Judah being Vicki’s father but it works.   

 

The only question I would have is why Liz didn’t ask the name of the warlock when Barnabas first told her about it. I am also perplexed at how Clark spells Amadeus’ name (I put it as seen in the actual book here).

 

Clark manages to give us a fabulous backstory about Miranda and why Angelique vows to have Barnabas so strongly and seemingly turns the KLS character (Emily) into the one who used Judah’s black magic to win her man. There’s horror (the coach going over the cliff is particularly memorable and horrific) and logic in all of it really and it all really coalesces into a great epic tying a lot of the TV show’s loose ends and unsatisfying no-enders into a logical and satisfying present day storyline while also respecting ALL the past timelines, too.

 

Clark even gives us a great 1692 storyline but I feel a chunk of it is missing…what happened to Amadeaus and Purity? Who else died? Who is Bryon’s brother and what is he like? Maybe we will get some of this in future installment (there are three more left and the 8^th book as far as I know was never written or released).

 

We also get the Quentin’s son thing, the connection to Laura, a danger for David, Carolyn’s regressed lives, a sort of fond resolution for Joe and Maggie, and Vicki’s father! How could any fan ask for more!?

 

Again, this is more than just a fan fic. In my opinion, it IS the logical continuation of DARK SHADOWS.