"She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older -- the natural sequence of an unnatural beginning." "Persuasion" by Jane Austen

Chapter XII
Persuasion

Picking up the little dagger, caressing it as if it had a life of its own, Maggie found it a source of comfort, because it had been a gift from her lover. Dropping it back in its safe place she continued her searching. Searching. Maggie was doing a fruitless search for her companions she had had stashed all over the room in her aunt and uncle's house. She had begun stashing them when her aunt would question her about the amount she was taking. The ones she stashed were, of course, the ones she had stolen from her aunt's bathroom. They had been in that bathroom for almost a year-and-a-half. Her Aunt Eugenie had them prescribed for her when her mother died. She had taken one or two from the bottle, and forgotten about them until now.
Maggie was all but tearing her room apart, because she had forgotten she had taken them. Useless, she knew it was useless. There were no more. Sobbing with frustration, she stumbled back to her bed. She needed to be still for a moment, before she threw up, and she didn't have the strength to clean it up. She did not want to explain to her aunt why she couldn't make it to the bathroom. Reaching her destination, she climbed in her bed, pulled the covers over her, and tried to will herself to stop shaking. The shaking was becoming jerky. She was starting to be afraid. "Oh, dear God, Barnabas, what has happened to me?" Maggie uttered.

The pharmacist had refilled the prescription a couple of times that Julia Hoffman had written for her, but he wouldn't do it again. Maggie's Aunt Eugenie had gone to a neighboring town, and visited a doctor and managed to get a prescription for the tranquilizer, with one refill, now it was gone.

When Maggie had arrived at her Uncle Jean and Aunt Eugenie's home in Canada, they were appalled when they saw Maggie. They did not recognize the apparition that claimed to be their favorite niece. Sam had explained it to them over the phone, when they had received his desperate plea to allow Maggie to stay with them for awhile. He went into detail as to what was happening, the visits with Barnabas Collins, the beatings, the refusal to give him up. He did not leave out anything, so they were prepared for their niece to be sad, depressed, and unhappy, and therefore, an altered appearance, but they were not prepared for the Maggie that greeted them.

Eugenie had shown Sam where her bedroom was, and Sam had carried her there, and put her to bed. Eugenie and Jean had hoped that in time she would snap out of it, but she seemed to be getting worse. Eugenie knew she was taking tranquilizers, but she was unaware that Maggie had become addicted to them.   After getting Maggie several refills in a very short period of time, a doctor that she had called explained to her that Valium was a very powerful tranquilizer, and very addicting. Eugenie was afraid for her niece. She noticed that Maggie seemed to be very dehydrated. She had been here for about a month or so, and seemed to be deteriorating very rapidly. Maggie very rarely left her room, got very agitated when anyone bothered her.

Eugenie remembered going into her room just to check on her, and was sickened by the odor that greeted her. Immediately, she had gone to the windows, and opened the curtain, and opened the windows. Maggie had started screaming for her to close the windows. The light hurt her eyes. Eugenie had managed to persuade Maggie to let her open the window, but leave the drapes closed. Also, it had been difficult, but she had gotten her cleaned up, and even convinced her to eat. Maggie hadn't been able to hold it down. Eugenie had made up her mind to tell Jean that they must insist on taking Maggie to a doctor, but first she would call Sam.

Eugenie was shaken out of her reverie when she heard Maggie screaming "Get them off me!"

Without thinking Eugenie ran up the stairs as fast as she could, reaching Maggie's room, she shoved the door open as quickly as possible. Maggie had not stopped screaming. Opening the door to the room, the sight that Eugenie was confronted with terrified her. Maggie was crouched in the far corner of the room, slapping at herself repeatedly, screaming "get them off!" She was pulling at her hair, and then she would make brushing movements at her body, and soon would turn into hits.

"Please, please, get them off." Maggie was sobbing. "They're hurting me, and I'm afraid of them. Get them off. Get them off me, please, oh please." Maggie was getting hysterical.

She was moving her head very rapidly back and forth. Her eyes were glazed. Blood was running down her chin from her mouth where she had bit her tongue.   Eugenie approached her very cautiously. She didn't know what was wrong. The pretty brunette, upon reaching her niece took her hands, and gripped them so Maggie could not hurt herself anymore.

Eugenie could see the scratches on her face from her unkempt nails. Oh God, how had this happened to her beautiful little Maggie.

Eugenie reverting to her native French said, "Mon enfant, ce qui est lui? Mon pauvre pauvre bébé. Shhhh! Silence maintenant. Shhh. Silence. Il va être correct." (My child, what is it? My poor poor baby. Shhhh! Hush now. Shhh. Hush. It's going to be okay.)

After waking from her dream, and conducting the useless search for the pills, Maggie had made it back to bed, and that's when she saw the first one on her bedspread. It looked like a roach, but not a roach, it was slithery, and slimy. For some reason she hadn't been afraid, she had automatically tried to kill it. But then there was another one, then they were everywhere on her bed. She got out of the bed as fast as she could, the movement caused her to throw up the water she had tried to drink earlier. She threw up on herself, and she was trying to get away from the bugs, so she couldn't clean up the mess. They were on her now. They were crawling on her arms, her legs, moving up towards her face. She felt them in her hair, and then her face, and that's when she started to scream and couldn't stop. She was afraid if she stopped she would cross the line of sanity and plunge into the dark world of insanity. She couldn't control her movements. She heard her aunt walk in, and talk to her in French, and somehow it was soothing.

"Maggie, what is it?" Eugenie asked softly disguising the horror and sorrow she felt for Maggie.

"The bugs, Aunt Eugenie, get them off me, please," Maggie answered her in a begging tone.

"There are no bugs, Maggie," Eugenie answered her firmly.

"Yes, there are. Don't you see them? Get them off me, please, please. Just get them off. I'm afraid." Maggie said sobbing, pulling her hands from her aunt's grasp, so she could brush them off, because there were more now.

"Aunt Eugenie, I don't want them to get on you, because if they do, you can't get them off, they just make more and more and more and more" --

"Stop it, Maggie," Eugenie said.

Eugenie didn't know what to do. She felt helpless to help the young woman in front of her. Jean had gone to town to get feed for the cows, and she didn't know when he would return. She was afraid for Maggie. She needed to call a doctor or an ambulance or something, but she was afraid to leave Maggie alone. What was she going to do? She would have to risk it, and leave Maggie for a moment.

Barnabas sat in the drawing room gazing at the fire. He felt empty, and forlorn. When Maggie had left, he hadmissed her company. She had been passionate and full of fire, and had an enthusiasm for love that had astonished him. He missed their intimacy. He liked to watch her get excited when he would enter a room. He could always hear her heart rate speed up when he was near her. He could smell her arousal. She could never hide it from him.

There were many qualities about Maggie that had endured her to him, mostly it had been her childlike devotion to him or he wouldn't have allowed their doomed relationship to go on as long as it had.   Granted it had been a very tempestuous relationship, but -- he told himself he wouldn't dwell on Maggie. He had convinced her to go to Canada, she had had no choice but to obey him. He was, after all, her master, and she knew that, so now she was gone, and he didn't seem to be able to will her out of his thoughts, he thought with a frown on his face.

At first, he felt her pain through their link. Pulsing continually with a life of its own, he could taste her sadness, despair, and loneliness, and the need. She needed him desperately. He knew if he didn't mentally block the link, the emotions coming from her were so strong they were physical, and would destroy any chance of success he would have with Victoria Winters becoming his bride. The emotions were distracting, so he shut Maggie off, and out of his life as if she had never existed in his world.

Everything was going good. Willie and Julia had convinced him, after Sam had went to Collinwood and plead for Maggie's life, as he had put it to Elizabeth. When Elizabeth had come to him, she did so very apologetically, as one of her breeding and class would, she had told him very forthrightly to get Maggie Evans out of his life, or he would end up destroyed in one way or the other.

Willie and Julia had listened to Elizabeth talk to him for an hour-and-a-half, while Barnabas remained noncommittal.

Willie knew that Barnabas would do what Barnabas wanted to do, and when he heard Barnabas tell Mrs. Stoddard good night, Willie Loomis with Dr. Hoffman was waiting for him. They spent another two hours talking with him about why he should do as Sam Evans wanted him to. The injections were working. There had been no attacks, and the talk had died down. Victoria Winters was falling in love with him, it would only be a matter of time before she agreed to marry him, why ruin everything with this insane affair that was only serving to destroy the two people involved in it. It was not fair to Maggie. He did not love her. She worshipped him. She deserved a chance to rebuild her broken life. Let her go. Finally they convinced him.

And so now she was gone. She had been gone for over a month. Why was he still thinking about her. He thought about her every night. He found himself comparing her to Vicky. He couldn't help but think about how much she looked like Josette. How she would dress up in Josette's clothes, and he in his 18th Century clothes, and they would play act at being Barnabas and Josette. It had been innocent fun for Maggie. She had liked to dress up in Josette's clothes, and he had enjoyed watching her eyes light up with happiness. Could he imagine Vicky doing that with him? No. I'm doing it again. I'm comparing them, he thought.

His thoughts then took on a melancholy to which he was accustomed since being lost in this modern world. He was paralyzed by romantic nostalgia for this 18th Century life here in this house, he had reconstructed his past in fond, obsessive detail. He made a disgusted sound, and rose from his chair, having decided what to do.

"Willie!" Barnabas yelled.

"Coming, Barnabas," Willie replied, walking out of the kitchen area.

"What is it? Is something wrong?" Willie asked concerned. He knew Barnabas had been sitting in here for a long time just thinking.

"I'm going out for awhile." Barnabas told Willie.

"Okay. Is everything okay, Barnabas?" Willie asked him.

"Yes. I just need to get out for awhile." Barnabas replied.

"Are you going to see Vicky tonight?" Willie asked nonchalantly.

"No, I don't think so." Barnabas said putting on his cape, and retrieving his cane.

"Why all the questions, Willie? I'm going for a walk. Now, stop asking so many questions," Barnabas said getting angry, his eyes were starting to flash a dangerous red glow.

Willie backed off.

As Barnabas was walking out the door, he ran into Carolyn.

"Carolyn, how pleasant, " Barnabas said.

"Cousin Barnabas, just the man I need to see. Oh, you're leaving. Were you going to Collilnwood?" Carolyn asked.

"No. It's such a lovely evening I thought I would take a walk," Barnabas replied softly.

"Do you mind if I join you for a bit?" Carolyn asked her cousin.

"Of course not. I'd be delighted," Barnabas replied.

Barnabas and Carolyn had been walking for a couple of minutes, and Carolyn noticed they were at Widows Hill, and she could hear the far off sound of the widows wailing. She always hated that sound.   It seemed when you could hear them real clear, someone would die. A shudder went through her at the thought. She felt Barnabas put his arm around her waist, as he said, "Cousin, what's troubling you?"

"The only way I know how to tell you is show you. I have a small flashlight if you want to read it now." Carolyn told her cousin.

"Thank you, Carolyn," Barnabas said, although he didn't really need it to see in the darkness.

"I have told no one what is contained in this piece of paper," Carolyn said handing a white sheet of paper to her British cousin.

She could tell by his expression he was very surprised, and he seemed upset.

Carolyn took Barnabas' hands as she looked at him, and said "Barnabas, this is none of my business, and you don't have to talk about it with me if you don't want to."

"Carolyn, look at me." Barnabas said softly.

Carolyn looked at her cousin, and found herself drowning in his eyes. His voice seemed distant. "You will remember nothing..."

"Well, goodnight, Carolyn. I had a nice walk. Now, you should go in, it's getting cold out here. I wouldn't want you to get ill," Barnabas said, then kissed her hand and said good night.

Smiling at him, she told him good night, thinking how lucky they were that he had come to Collinwood.

Eugenie had rushed downstairs to call the hospital to send an ambulance. She could still hear Maggie pleading to get them off. Talking on the phone, and trying to explain to the woman at the hospital what was going on, and then giving her the address and name, she didn't notice that Maggie had stopped. All of a sudden she heard a bloodcurdling scream, she dropped the phone, and ran up the stairs to Maggie's room. Entering her room, she looked around and didn't see Maggie. She then ran to the bathroom down the hall, the door was open, and she saw Maggie laying on the floor in a pool of blood. She had thrown up blood.

Walking along the docks, Barnabas was contemplating the piece of paper that Carolyn had handed him. It was unbelievable. He knew he should find Hoffman, but that would wait. It was then that the pain hit him. It was so sharp and so severe that he doubled over. The pain was ripping through his body like a sword driving through his insides, disemboweling him, over and over again. A sheen of bloodsweat covered his forehead, as he grasped his cane he felt himself reverting back to the Vampire. The pain was excruciating. Blood! He needed blood now. The derelict walking along the docks never knew what hit him. Barnabas pulled his fangs from the man's neck, and then broke it. After disposing of him, Barnabas took to the air.

Knocking on the door at the Evans' cottage, Barnabas stood waiting for the man to answer the door. He knew he was home, he heard his heart beat. Finally, the door opened, and Sam Evans seeing Barnabas Collins standing at his door at 11:00 o'clock in the evening was angry.

"What are you doing here, Collins?" Sam asked him in an angry tone.

"Where *is* *Maggie*"? Barnabas asked with his gaze locked on Sam's eyes.

After finding out what he wanted to know, Sam asked him, "why do you want to know where Maggie is?"
"I'm going to go get her, and bring her home with me where she belongs, Mr. Evans," Barnabas answered the man in a deadly voice.

To be continued ...