Subj: Christmas 1940 (A RR Story) Pt.3
Date: 12/4/00 5:01:38 AM Central Standard Time
From: Julianka

At the scene of the accident: Donamarie and Claudia follow Mark as he runs from the road, down the through the broken guardrail to the badly smashed car of his beloved Vicki.

"Where is she!" Mark screamed at the them. Running around the area in a panic, he stopped before Donamarie. Seeing the tears course down her silken cheeks, he cried, "Too late! You said we had to hurry before it was too late! Have we arrived too late? Could someone have taken her away?"

Shaking her dark haired head at him, she tried to comfort him. "Be calm and hold hope in your heart Mark." Turning and watching her best friend Claudia investigate the the area, she cautioned him to be quiet.

Finally after a few minutes Claudia came to them. "It is worse then I feared." she announced. Pointing to small footsteps leading away from the wrecked car. The foot prints ended a few feet later and a crimson stain marked the other wise pristine and unbroken snow.

"What does it mean!", Mark demanded. "Vicki couldn't have flown away!"

"What it means is this area is "special". There are many places that act as gateways. And this place, that your Vicki has stumbled into seems to be one. As soon as we arrived here I felt something, like an undercurrent of static electricity. I'm afraid she's gone."

Mark fell sobbing to his knees in the snow by the car.Trembling with cold and grief.

Donamarie whispered to Claudia. "It can't be hopeless. I still feel my calling to protect my ward."

Hearing her words, Mark grasped Donamarie's hand. "You said you are an angel of God! You must be my Vicki's guardian angel! Can you help me find her? Please!"

Sadly Donamarie stroked Mark's arm. "No my dear, I am not your beloved Vicki's guardian angel, but anothers. Someone whose life is tied to your wife's."

Looking at Claudia with a hope lighting her face, she cried out, "I can hear her! I can hear her crying now!"

Claudia cupped her hands over Donamarie's ears and began to smile. Both the dark haired angel and the blond witch turned to Mark.

Claudia asked him, "How much do you love your Vicki?"

"Beyond anything, more then I have words to describe, she is my life!" he pledged.

"It seems we have a special set of circumstances here, that may allow us to find her. For you and she seem to be soulmates and there is another life who is in between heaven and whereever Vicki is at present."

At Mark's puzzled frown, Claudia went on to explain, "Mark, Vicki is with child. A little daughter who is under the protection of my friend Donamarie here. Now we must discover what kind of gateway Vicki has fallen through and attempt to follow her."

"How many kinds are there?" Mark asked.

"Oh, more then you as a human being can guess at. Doorways to parallel times too many and varied to number. Wormholes to other times and places. Openings to far distant planets even. And more."

"Now I must concentrate on Vicki if we are to find her." Clasping Mark's and Donamarie's Claudia began to intone an incantation, in so low a voice Mark couldn't make out the words. But he felt a strange pulling at his body and the world seemed to be slipping away from him.

Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.