Subj: Shadows Return Chapter 12
Date: 6/4/99 5:26:16 PM Central Daylight Time
From: Kim Monroe

Micheal McGuire smiled at Callista. She managed to smile back. She was doing so much better. It seemed absolutely incredible that overnight she went from near death, to near leaving the hospital. He saw that his presence was no longer neccessary when he met Angelique Blair downstairs in the lobby. He left for Collinwood in a few minutes.

Jerry watched Callista. He hated to do this, with Angelique so close to telling Callista the secret, and second up with his ghostly ally going to tell Micheal the answers to the questions he so deperately needed to find. But he knew he had to. The Collinses, aside for Willie and Carolyn had left, and since her condition had improved, Jerry knew Callista had to get out of the hospital. He silently called to her and she unhooked the ivs. She slid out of bed and dressed in the clothes Carolyn had brought for her. She was relieved to see a new nurse watching the door. Callista smiled and walked out of the hospital.

Jerry walked with her to a bus stop and they got on one heading for Bangor. Callista had friends there who would give her a ride to Collinsport. Jerry told her about fishing and about his nephew, whose name was never mentioned. He told her about his older sister who was worse in the hateful department than Maggie was. Callista laughed as she told him about her younger brother and her antics involving driving her father's car into the garage door when she was 6 and her and her brother wading in the sewage pipe when she was 7. When the bus stopped she called her friend and he took her to the Collins property. Callista and Jerry went to Rose Cottage.

"That's odd." She noted," The lights are on."

Jerry shrugged."Perhaps Michael is staying there, or David and Amy."

"No, everyone's at Collinwood."

Callista walked into Rose Cottage, noticing the bag of chips in the floor and a half-eaten sandwich on the table. A large suitcase of men's clothes lay on the floor of the drawing room.

A radio was cranked up in the bedroom downstairs. Outside, the evening was pleasant. A cool breeze drifted, the scent of honeysuckles floated in the air. The lights at Rose Cottage had been noticed by another person. Krystal Pettibone, a family friend of the Collinses, walked the path to Rose Cottage. She hoped that it was a young single man. Collinsport didn't have many until the Mulder men showed up, the downfall was they were weird. She noticed a rustling in the undergrowth to her left when she stopped. "Who's there?" she called out.

She was going to call out again, when she felt teeth sharp like a thousand stings enter her neck. She turned, long enough to see a hairy wolf-like creature lunge at her.

*********************************************************

Callista noticed the other bag, a duffel bag with books. Nosy, Jerry walked to one and pulled it out. He quickly put it back. He handed Callista another one and suggested she read it. She was about to protest, but when she turned, Jerry was gone. The book she had seen Jerry cram back in the bag was the one she wanted. She retrieved it and decided to come back in the morning.

**********************************************************

Scully, Mulder, and Barnabas all sat in the Drawing Room. Mulder and Barnabas were talking, Scully sat silently,brooding. Barnabas went and looked out the window. "It's a full moon tonight," he observed. Mulder, crossed over to stand beside him.

"Yeah, Anyway, I was curious to know, how did Willie get you blood."

"By steers, and cattle." Barnabas responded. Scully smiled, the idea of Mulder dragging a cow to Barnabas was hilarious.

"I'll see what I can do tonight, but tomorrow it's whatever YOU get." Mulder departed to find Barnabas something to feed off of.

*********************************************************

At Collinwood, Michael was thinking about fixing something to eat, or to try to find out something about his father from Elizabeth. Roger was sitting talking about the cannery.The cannery that Roger hadn't been in for twenty years. Michael smiled at Roger and told him how delightful it was that Roger had such good memory. Michael inside felt bad, he knew that for a Collins, Roger wasn't really that dumb. Pompous and arrogant, but not stupid. Michael hated David for running off and doing that to his father. When David ran away, Roger couldn't handle the guilt or depression. When David returned, Roger insisted that it wasn't really David, David was dead. Roger had lost it entirely when David ran away.For that, David would never have a friend in Michael. Or maybe it's because I never knew mine, Michael thought. Michael entered his room when he felt a presence behind him. He turned to see a red-haired woman beside him.

"I felt I owed you a visit, don't you agree?" she asked.

"Sure, I guess so," Michael responded, raising an eyebrow.

"I know that you are Michael McGuire and that you are looking for your father's grave. I'd like to tell you that in 1840 another man had a similar quest, and he found what he was looking for. I will add that he was stabbed later. If you insist on finding your father's grave, I suggest that you go to cellar at sunrise. You must go to the cellar and dig, but you will find it. And alot more than you bargained for."

Michael watched wide-eyed as the spirit faded before his eyes.

*********************************************************

Callista was reading the book in the Caretaker's Cottage. She didn't feel safe to go to the Old House and they would be searching for her at Collinwood. Rose Cottage was now inhabited by someone, so this was the place of solitude she needed. Her cousin Quentin had lived here for a while and showed her secret passages and told her stories of werewolves and gypsies. Barnabas had already told her that they were true, but not to let on she knew, even to Julia and Quentin. She read the book she had stolen, which had pictures of Collins ancestors and a family tree at the back. She was reading the 1795 section when she saw a portrait that made her scream! She was staring at Jerry's face, but he wasn't Jerry. She glanced at the name beneath the portrait. Jeremiah Collins. She dropped the book, and it landed at her feet. She read the page it had
fallen open to, The Family Tree. She read the names, the under the English Branch of the family, she noticed Barnabas Collins 1st wife Angelique Bouchard then under that, she gasped.written in Quentin Collins' handwriting was daughter: Callista Josette Collins.

Callista paled, whether or not Barnabas would kill her, or worse for causing the vampire curse to return to him, she had to know if this was the truth. Like that Mulder guy said, she thought, the truth is out there.