Subj: DS:Legends
Date: 2/9/02 12:18:16 PM Central Standard Time
From: Aesgaard

It was the cold dark woods north of Rockport as Quentin Collins and Carolyn Stoddard Loomis took their sons, nephews and their friends camping.

Angelique was glad to have her son, William, away from her for a few days as well as Quentin's son Jamison. The two boys along with J.R. Loomis, Joe Haskell jr and Russell Coleman were worse than the Little Rascals when it came to terrorizing Collinwood. Coleman was the son of a worker on the shipping yards, but his everlasting presence at the estate was felt by all.

"Quentin," Carolyn picked up the paper plates and stuffed them into a trash bag. "How did you find this site ?"

"My father brought me up here as a boy."

"But no one's camped here in over a hundred years." Carolyn noticed.

"Yup." Quentin beamed enigmaticly."Jamison ! Stop throwing trash in the fire !!"

"Awwww, dad...."

"Where's William and Russell." Carolyn looked around.

"Damming the creek, catching crayfish,,,," Quentin mumbled. "I promised I'd show them how to cook them."

Carolyn turned as the two dam-builders wandered back to the fire and tents. They were both covered in mud and drenched to the skin as they huddled in the heat of the fire. William dropped a bucket half full of dozens of squirming, crawling live crayfish. Their tiny beady eyes stared up over the edge of the bucket.

"William !" Carolyn grabbed a towel and dropped to her nephew's level. "Your mother is going to kill me !" She dried and warmed him.

"Awwwwww, Aunt Carowyn," The boy had always had a crush on her. "I had fun ! Uncle Qwentin, can we tell ghost stories now ?!"

The other boys joined in on the request.

"Tell us about the one-handed wizard and the portrait that came to life !" J.R. lit up.

"No, " Quentin closed the bag of trash as he put the left over hamburger buns away. "Your mothers would string me up, and Jamison, your mom would make me sleep on the couch."

"Maggie would do that." Carolyn mumbled as she dried off Russell.

"Do you boys know the true story of the founding of Collinsport ?" Quentin sat on a log outside the fire. "I mean, the real true story ?!"

"Is it scary ?" Russell asked.

"Maybe," Quentin appeared as if the fire was putting a trance on him. The flames illuminated his face as he continued. "My father told me this story, and he heard it from his, and he heard from his all the way back to Isaac Collins himself."

Carolyn pulled J.R. closer as the boys seemingly calmed for the first time in their lives. They watched Quentin as he eerily began the story. A owl hooted somewhere in the night as a timber wolf howled for his mate against the moonlit sky. The crackling logs and branches in the fire snapped under colors of yellow and orange.

"It begins with a ship lost at sea." Quentin barely spoke over a whisper. "A wooden sailing ship on it's way to Boston in 1678, over three hundred years ago this very day..............."

Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.