Subj: A Return to the Shadows part 40
Date: 10/7/01 10:05:53 PM Central Daylight Time
From: KimD

Laura moved around her room gathering what she would need, a red candle, paper, and a fireproof bowl. She remembered the conversation she had overheard yesterday between Maggie and Vicki. Maggie had asked Vicki to watch Laura. That would work out to her advantage. She could use Vicki to get to Maggie, but first she needed to break the connection that Vicki had with the vampire.

Laura sat at desk and took out a sheet of paper. She drew a picture of Vicki with the marks of the vampire clearly visible on her neck. After the picture was finished she lit a red candle. She held the picture up to the flame and watched it catch fire. She laid the now burning picture in the bowl. She heard the door rattle as someone opened the door. Lookup, she saw Roger enter the room. He took in the scene, the burning candle, and the picture, which was now unrecognizable as anything other than paper, burning in the bowl. As he looked at her his eyes narrowed in speculation. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Don't you trust me?" she said putting enough hurt in her voice that it sounded real.

"Of course I trust you," he said, trying not to upset her. "I just worry."

She stood up to meet him. "You can stop worrying," she put her arms around him in an effort to reassure him. "I'm alright. Nothing's going to happen."

Roger continued to look at her with skepticism before deciding to accept her story. "I just wanted to tell you I was leaving for the office." He continued to stare at the fire with a great deal of curiosity. He thought back to everything she had done before the institution. It reminded to see if he could find someplace else to put her.

"Have you told my son I'm here?"

"No, not yet. I'll tell him tonight. You can see him then."

After Roger left she drew another picture of Vicki, this time with out the vampire bite. She placed it under the candle and allowed the candle to burn out.

Vicki had been in the classroom with David when she noticed the change. She had been watching him work over some math problems when a fog seemed to lift from her mind. She sat confused for a moment. What had happened? David had noticed something was different. Vicki looked up and saw him looking at her curiously. "Miss. Winters?" he asked.

Vicki felt her neck for the two puncture wounds, but found they were gone. She smiled at David. "It's alright. Everything's going to be fine now."

That afternoon David hurried from the classroom to enjoy the rest of the day. He stopped when he saw who was coming toward him. It was his mother. She knelt down before him and hugged him. "Momma?" he said uncertainly. "Dad told me you had gone away."

"Well, I'm back now. This time I'm not going anywhere." Vicki looked at the scene with a critical eye. She could see fear in David eyes, as he seemed to remember the fire he had been trapped in the last time he had seen his mother. She remembered everything that Maggie had told her. Laura was a witch. She wanted to kill Roger.

Laura spent a good deal the afternoon with David getting to know him again. Vicki watched them from an upstairs window as Laura walked outside with him. Vicki watched as Laura left David alone and went inside Collinwood.

Vicki found her in the study. She discreetly watched from the doorway of the study as Laura sat with a ball of twine. She watched as she formed it into two figures. When Laura was done she got up and walked toward the door. Vicki quickly stepped back into a dark room across the hall and watched as Laura walked down the hall. Vicki followed her from a distance as she walked upstairs into Rogers's room. She left the door open as she searched through a drawer until she found cuff links. Vicki watched as she attached it to one of the twine figures. She would have to talk to Maggie. Maggie had asked her to watch Laura and tell her in anything was happening. With that thought she left for Collinsport thinking she hadn't been seen.

Laura walked back into the house with the items she gathered. Of course she had known Vicki was there. She knew the whole time she was being watched. That was what she wanted. Now she would go tell Maggie. Maggie would realize what she was going to do, but she wasn't powerful enough to do anything to stop it. She would have to set back uselessly and watch while Laura destroyed Roger.

Vicki found Maggie at the Blue Whale, helping Sam prepare to open in a few hours. "Hello," Vicki said as she entered the bar.

"Good afternoon Vicki," Maggie said as she looked up from wiping off tables.

"Maggie, may I speak to you alone?"

"Has something happened at Collinwood?" Maggie asked as soon as they were well out of Sam's hearing.

"I'm not sure. Laura was acting oddly today." Vicki proceeded to tell her what she had seen Laura doing.

Maggie thought for a moment before then looked horrified. "So this is her revenge. There's a spell that requires all those things, plus black candles. It does many different things depending upon the will of person casting it. But it all ends in the same way. Death." She said it as if she couldn't believe it. She thought she had been prepared to fight Laura, but how could she fight Laura when she wasn't sure exactly what she was going to happen.

Vicki came closer to her friend and put her arms around her. "Everything will be fine. There has to be something we can do."

"Yes, of course there is," Maggie said, although she didn't know anything that could be done. "I'll need more time. I need to think."

Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.