Subj: DS:Ally 10
Date: 4/1/02 11:25:13 AM Central Standard Time
From: Aesgaard

Barnabus and Quentin watched as Ally grabbed a pillow from the living room and headed back into the dining room. She tenderly and fretfully lifted Angelique's head and put the pillow under her head and then checked her breathing. She stepped back and nervously paced a bit.

"Angelique," Barnabus began. "I don't understand how you can hypnotize her and end up switching bodies with her."

"Barnabus, please," Ally pulled her hair back. "This is very distressing as it is." She checked again to see if her body was breathing. "We didn't exactly switch bodies. What with William's distraction, Ally's unique consciousness and the fact I haven't practiced my witchcraft in such a long time, my mind sort of got trapped in hers. Her mind and my body are both under different trances - sort of like emptying half a glass of water into another until one is empty."

"Well," Quentin sat in the window and drank his brandy. "You better do something quick. When Ally doesn't appear at the Blue Whale, William's going to come looking for her."

"Just let me think," Ally put her fingers to her lips and paced back and forth. She stopped a second to stroke Angelique's long blonde hair then stopped. "Barnabus, do you remember that young lady who stayed with us a while collecting antiques ?"

"Um, uh, yes." Barnabus recalled her. "Redhead, resembled Amanda....."

"Michelle Foster." Quentin named her.

"Yes," Ally grinned. "Well, she told me about an amulet that swapped minds between bodies......"

"Wouldn't there be a curse on it ?" Quentin added.

"Oh, I can handle one of Vendredi's stupid spells." Ally cockily vibrated her head. "The problem is not being in my body I couldn't be sure of the accuracy of any spell I attempted."

"Well," Quentin finished his drink. "You better do something or else William better learn the lyrics to 'I'm My Own Grandpa.'" He smirked and looked at the bottom of his glass. "This whole thing is giving me Petofi flashbacks."

"Quentin !" Ally grinned and kissed him. "That's it. Barnabus, do you remember when Petofi switched bodies with William ?!"

"Don't remind me."

"The reason we defeated him so easily goes back to something Nicholas Blair told me." Ally smiled nonthreateningly. "When he was trying to take William away, he reminded me that as my son that William inherited my psychic powers. Despite being untapped and undeveloped, William was able to get his body back and he should be able to do it for me as well."

"But you removed those memories from him." Barnabus added. "How do we get him to help you without him finding out what's going on and opening another plethora of questions ?"

"Barnabus," Ally grinned uncannily like Angelique. "We are his parents. We have to trick him."

Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.