Sunset Shadows -- 1
Date: 7/6/98
From: DSRules

1990

Ben Evans knocked on the door of Annie Douglas' house. To his surprise, it wasn't his redheaded vixen of a girlfriend who opened the door, but a woman that he assumed must be her roommate Maria, an enchanting young woman with the most luxurious mane of brown hair he had ever seen in his life. Even standing a few feet away from her, he could swear that he could smell the floral aroma of her perfume.

{Please,} the witch prayed to her Master when she saw Ben for the first time, {this man is everything Barnabas was, and more. I'll forswear my powers forever if you'll just let me have this man for my own.}

When Ben's eyes met her eyes, which were as large and dark as a doe's, he knew that he was irretrievably lost.

1993

The Englishman stood on a doorstep in Pacific Palisades, admiring the ring he wore on the third finger of his right hand. Finally, with a glance at the carrier at his feet, he rang the doorbell.

"Could you get that, Anton?" Bette Katzenkazrahi called to her new husband.

Anton answered the door, and when Bette heard the voice of their caller, she came into the room. "Ben!" she cried as she gave him an air kiss, "It's so good to see you! What brings you to our neck of the woods?"

The Englishman seemed unusually hesitant, "I was, err, wondering if you could do me a favor."

"Anything!" the older woman insisted, "Just name it!"

He stepped out onto the front porch and returned carrying a car seat, complete with a newborn baby. "I was wondering if you could raise him for me? He's the son of my, err, brother, Ted. Ted and his wife cannot keep him."

"A baby?" Bette seemed uncertain at first, but Anton had just been telling her the other day that he wanted children, and this would be just about the most painless way she could think of to get a baby.

When she looked at Anton, the longing in his eyes was the only persuasion she needed. "Of course, Ben, we'd be happy to take him in for you."

"Thank you, Bette!" Their visitor smiled as he placed the car seat on the floor. "And here is a token of my gratitude. These are jewels that belonged to his parents." He stuck an elaborate pin, with a diamond-encrusted six-headed serpent, to Bette's lapel, and then replaced the diamond stud in Anton's left earlobe with a half-inch diameter green cabochon that glowed eerily.

Just before the Englishman left the house, he said to the couple, "By the way, his name is Mark."

* * * * *

The witch who had once called herself Angelique Bouchard was arguing with her brother about Ben -- again. Once during their childhood, when she was in fear of her safety from some school bullies, she put a spell on Ricardo. It wasn't much of a spell, really, just a little something to make him extra vigilant regarding the safety of his younger sister.

Nevertheless, as a result, Ricardo made Maria's safety his primary concern, and he was firmly convinced that any man she dated intended to do her harm, and now that she'd married Ben, the conviction that she was in imminent danger was stronger than it had ever been before.

"Maria, I just don't think he has your best interests at heart."

She sighed, "Ben would never do anything to hurt me."

"He left you alone all night last night while he worked at his nightclub. . . ."

"That's his job, Ricardo."

"Something is going to happen to you. I just know it."

Many times since she'd married Ben, Maria almost lifted the spell she put on Ricardo. However, lifting the spell would involve the use of her powers. She knew that her Master well enough to know that he would use that minor violation of her pact to break his end of it, and she'd lose Ben for certain.

* * * * *

"Bette!" Olivia cried as the two women exchanged hugs and air kisses. Once that greeting ritual was over, Olivia noticed the gaudy pin that her friend was wearing. {Oh, well,} she thought, {at least it's better than that awful spider pin she's so fond of.}

Then, she heard the sound of. . . "a baby? You have a baby here, Bette?"

Bette giggled a little, uncharacteristically coy. "Oh, he's Anton's sister's child. She couldn't keep him, and Anton has always wanted children, so when it turned out that she'd named us as his guardians, we just jumped at the chance."

Bette led Olivia into the room they'd converted into a nursery since receiving the child the previous day and showed her new son off to her friend.

Olivia thought that something seemed strange about the child, but he was a beautiful baby, and she said so.

"Thank you," Bette said, proud as if she had given birth to him herself.

"How old is he? Six months?"

Not knowing much about the age of children, Bette decided to go with Olivia's estimate -- almost. "Close. Five and a half months."

"I was thinking that he's a little big for six months. He's definitely big for five and a half."

Bette thought quickly, "His father was a football player. A really, big, football player."

"What's his name?" Olivia asked.

"Mark?"

"Aren't you sure?"

"Well, you know how it is. That's the name his parents gave him, but we're not sure we want to keep it."

"Aaah!" Olivia said, knowingly.

* * * * *

Since her reincarnation as Maria Torres, Angelique found that she had time to do other things besides plot her revenge against those who thought themselves superior to her. Always having had an artistic nature -- one can hardly cast spells using clay models without developing one's artistic abilities -- she had taken up painting.

Now that she had given up her magic, she found that she had even more time for painting, as well as a husband who was willing to provide her with a well-lit studio and all of the materials she could want. She did a delightful painting of Bette, Olivia, and Elaine Stevens, which she considered one of her very best. She hung that one over the fireplace in her studio.

Although Ben was especially fond of a self-portrait she did of herself in the swing on the beach wearing the dress that Ben called her "cloud dress."

She stopped the painting she was working on and pulled out her journal. {I used to think I knew what love was all about,} she wrote, thinking of Barnabas, {but since I met him,} she wrote, thinking of Ben, {I know I didn't know anything at all about love} . . . .

End of Part One