Subj: DS:Future Imperfect 9
Date: 6/28/02 1:19:07 PM Central Daylight Time
From: Aesgaard

After David Collins finished talking to the police, the truth about the deaths had been leaked to the press claiming that William and Amanda had surprised an intruder and been killed in the process. Only the immediate family knew the truth and Ally was not able to handle it at all. Angelique was not her usual self either as she tried to cope with the fact that her first born son was now taken from her. She glanced at her grand daughters barely eating at the breakfast table and tried to think of them.

"I want daddy to come home." Lainey mumbled over her oatmeal.

"Me too." Angelique replied to herself as she heard a car horn. "That will be your Aunt Maggie to drive you to school. Get going."

"Bye, gramma." Georgia kissed Angelique as she grabbed her lunch and ran out. Lainey scuffed her feet a little slower and looked into her grandmother's big blue eyes.

"Daddy could come back if he wanted to, right ?"

"I wish it were possible." She forlornly kissed the curly haired moppet as she straightened back up. Barnabus came past the running kids heading out to Maggie's van as he poured his morning coffee. Angelique gasped and turned to hand him his breakfast as she choked back her tears.

"I got a postcard from Sara and Joe on their honeymoon." Angelique went about business. "I couldn't bare to ruin their happiness with bad news."

"Angelique," Barnabus tried to hold her as her eyes were becoming overwhelmed with tears. "There was no way we could have known. We can't bring him back this time." He kissed her neck as she paused for the emotion.

"A mother should never outlive her children." Angelique gasped as she turned to a breakfast tray. "And Ally hasn't gotten up from bed since the funeral. She's losing it."

"She's going to need our help." Barnabus replied. He watched as Angelique picked up the breakfast tray and headed up the back stairs. Bumping open the door to Josette's room, she looked at Ally laying still and staring out the windows as the morning sunlight came inside the room. She had barely moved or spoken since William was laid to rest in the back of the mausoleum at
Eagle Hill.

"Ally," Angelique placed the tray down. "Please eat something. You haven't eaten in days."

Her daughter-in-law just kept staring in a self-imposed trance.

"I know you loved him, I loved him too, but you can't live like this." The former sorceress blocked her view. "You have two daughters who need you."

No response except for a tear falling down over the tiny lawyer's face.

"Ally !" Angelique caressed her shoulder and pulled her covers into place.

She kissed her as her heart broke and left her alone. Unable to handle it, she left the room and started back to the back stairs. It took her past her son's old room, but as she passed it, she noticed the door inexplicably open. As she reached to close it she heard a woman's voice crying and then the glimpse of a white dress rushing out of her sight.

"Josette !" Angelique's paranormal awareness was never stronger as it was now. "Please, don't go. I need you." She turned and saw the ghost of her husband's beloved at the other end of the hall. Her face was obscured beneath her veils and her etherial body was still phasing between this world and the next.

"I know you owe me no favors, and this is probably your venegeance for all the terror I ever spread, but Josette, my former mistress," Angelique gasped. "Don't let Ally suffer. I don't care for me, but if my son is with you, unfurl your hand and let him come back. His wife needs him."

Josette started fading.

"No, please don't go," Angelique almost stepped forward. "Please, let William come back. Please ! Not for me, but for the sake of my grandchildren." She collapsed in the hall and began crying in the doorway of her son's room.

Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.