Subj: The Shadows Return Chapter 4
Date: 5/5/99 10:20:07 AM Central Daylight Time
From: Kim Monroe

Carolyn and Callista arrived at Collinwood to find an impatient Maggie Collins waiting on them. Maggie told Carolyn that Willie was on the phone. She picked up the receiver.

"Hi, um Carolyn, I was wonderin, a friend of mine, he got a job up here and ain't got nowhere to stay, so I was thinkin he could stay at Collinwood."

"Of course, Willie. We'd be delighted to have him." she hung up to join Callista and Maggie in the drawing room "So, who's going to attend the graduation as your family?" Maggie asked, anxious to hear the response.

"Barnabas of course, and Willie. However, I hope that Willie has a date for the reception." Callista glanced at Carolyn.

"Have you asked your parents if they would attend?" Maggie probed.

"If my dear mother hadn't have informed them I was in college, they wouldn't have known." Callista answered coldly. Maggie felt a pang of sympathy for the for the girl. Maggie knew her husband had adored the girl. When Quentin left in 1982 he had it arranged so Callista Blair and David Collins would get a large portion of his money. Even though Quentin liked her doesn't mean I have to. Maggie thought silently staring at the young woman. Upstairs, however, in Elizabeth Collins Stoddard's room an odd feeling awoke the elderly woman. The strange calm that had surrounded Collinwood was being slowly replaced by a feeling of immanent fear and foreboding.

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After saying a hasty good-bye to Carolyn and Maggie, Callista hurriedly left. "I'm so late," Callista said to herself. As she drove to her home, she excelled the speed limit. As the towering shape of Blair House loomed over her she already cringed. Much to her relief the lights of the enormous house were off. A good sign no one save a few servants were home. She parked the Forester beneath a maple tree in the back of the yard and kneeled next to an ivy covered basement window. Lowering herself in, she slid up the plush carpeted stairs. She had reached the set of stairs that led to her room when her father's booming voice rang out.

"Callista Blair!"

"Yes, Father?" Callista turned and entered the Dining Hall.

For her own safety she stayed in the shadows of the dimly lit room.

"Today has gone by rather quickly, has it not my dear?" Nicholas asked, in an odd tone of voice.

"Yes, I suppose it has," Callista was wondering where this was getting at.

"It's odd really, I didn't know how you spent so much of your time, certainly not here. Then your mother enlightened me to where you devoted your time and attention. College I can vaguely understand, but the final outrage was in Collinwood. I see both places as a waste of time for any child of mine. I tolerated your foolishness, however I was deeply crushed when I learned who was invited to attend your graduation. As your family." Nicholas turned to face her. In a rage he screamed at her. "Why do you go them, if you were any significance of a Blair, you wouldn't even be in college. Yet this is the final outrage! As I see it you are no better than a street corner whore!" As Nicholas raised his hand back to strike the girl and firm commanding voice called out.

"Don't you lay a hand on her!" Callista looked into the blue eye of her brother Jacob. She nearly ran to him, clutching to him, sobbing. Nicholas Blair left disgusted. Jacob wrenched his sister from him, tossing her to the floor In a cold voice he stared at her,"Why don't you just leave Callista? You're a burden to mother, a disgrace to Father, and the sight of you disgusts me." he turned and went back into the hallway from which he emerged. Callista sprinted to the safety of her room.

Packing hurriedly she ignored the light knocking at her door. Angelique entered and sat on the crowded bed. "If you've come to berate me, you may go. I've had enough today." Callista said, avoiding her mother's gaze.

"I merely wanted to speak to you," Angelique responded.

"Oh? Good-byes aren't necessary."

"I know you have always felt at home in The Old House. I know you haven't had the best life here. I think you should see the world my daughter, Nicholas is furious and Jacob sides with him. If you gave them time..."

"They don't want time, they don't want me!" Callista fairly screamed. "Julia didn't give birth to me, but I can't think of anyone but her as "Mother" or anyone else as Father besides Barnabas." Angelique reached into her bag and pulled out a wooden jewelry box and two leather pouches. Near tears, she held them out to Callista. "Consider this your inheritance." Callista noticed the engraving with the name "Josette" on the box. She held Angelique for a minute then watched as Angelique left. Her mother had at one point in her life been a strong independent woman who knew what she wanted and did whatever was necessary to get it. Now THAT Angelique was gone. Only a beautiful shell of that woman remained. Callista left Blair House for the last time, and drove straight to The Old House.

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"She went to Barnabas, Father." Jacob said, moving away from the window, sauntering to where his father stood.

"So they must both be punished, for tearing our family apart." Nicholas calmly stated.

Jacob cleared his throat. "Father, if Callista hadn't spent so much of her youth with Barnabas and Julia, she wouldn't have indulged in their ways. You really can't blame a dog for barking, can you?"

Nicholas seemed to ponder that. "My son, you are a wise young man.I shall teach the one responsible for this a lesson."

Jacob's blue eyes widened. "But Julia's dead."

"And dead she shall remain. It is Barnabas I hold responsible, and it is Barnabas who shall pay."