Angelique's Revenge, Part 22
Date: 3/9/98
From: AngeliqueBouchard

Gerard brought Daphne back to the grounds of Collinwood. "Is this where you're going to kill me?" she asked.

"No," Gerard said softly. "I have decided to leave Laura. We will start a life together somewhere else. I can't guarantee your safety as long as Laura lives. It is true that I can't prevent her from coming back in about one hundred years, but at that time we will be far away from here and she will never find us. I want you to go tell Quentin everything about Laura. Tell him she must be burned to death before she takes David and her daughter away. He must act quickly for she plans to return to her master in the next few days. I also want you to tell him that the grave he is searching for is in the forest surrounding Collinwood. It is located East from the cemetery. Tell him to dig under the tree marked with this symbol." Gerard bent down and drew a symbol of Ra in the dirt.

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Daphne told everything to Quentin and the rest of the Collins family. Tom, Chris, Roxanne, Quentin, and Roger remained in the drawing room still debating the issue. Roger expressed his doubts and anger at Tom. "Do you really expect me to believe this? Laura, not human? That isn't possible."

"And what is possible Roger?" Quentin said heatedly. "The existence of a vampire?"

"Fine, I'm going to bed," Roger snapped as he headed for the door. "When you find some concrete proof, then I'll consider blaming Tom's impropriety to be the work of witchcraft."

He opened the doors and caught a fleeting glimpse of David running up the steps. "Just wonderful! David was listening at the door. I hope you can explain to him why you think his mother is an inhuman creature who wants to burn him to death!" Roger stormed out of the room.

"The room was quiet for a moment then Quentin spoke, "Well, I guess we had better get Roger's proof. First thing in the morning we are going to find our great grandfather's grave."

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In a damp secret room in the basement of Collinwood Angelique and Barnabas lay dozing on some blankets spread out on the cold stone floor. A single candle cast on eerie glow on the wall. The stone door opened and Angelique Bouchard entered. She put down bags of food and a jug of water on the floor simply for the purpose of keeping them alive until she did away with Laura.

"How long do you intend to keep us here?" said Barnabas as he and Angelique rose to their feet.

"Not long," Angelique Bouchard answered as she smirked. "Soon you will be none the wiser that any of this happened and you my dear Angelique will be buried and long forgotten." Her eyes sparkled as she laughed at the thought of her soon to come victory.

"You can't actually think you're going to get away with this," Angelique said defiantly.

"Of course I will. No one can hear you down here and no one knows about this secret room. It was forgotten long ago. Not even Jeb Hawkes can help you. I've made sure his powers are useless. And why wouldn't I be able to kill you? I certainly managed to kill your father without any consequences." Angelique Bouchard replied.

"What do you mean?" Angelique demanded. My father died in an accident."

"It looked like an accident, but even more like a suicide. But the truth was I killed him. I 'arranged' for him to fall into the water and I drowned him. Once your mother died in childbirth, I knew your father would be a hindrance to my plans. When he was dead, your grandmother was free to introduce you to the black arts. Why you resisted me I'll never know, but as you can see it is useless to fight against me."

Barnabas' blood boiled at the callous way she described life and death. He lunged at Angelique Bouchard, but she merely held out her hand and Barnabas froze. He fell on the hard stone floor and his wife immediately bent over to help him to his feet. "You're an inhuman monster," Angelique Collins spat. "We won't stop fighting you until you rot in hell where you belong!"

"As you wish," Angelique said and looked at Barnabas. "If I only had a few days to live, I would find better ways of occupying my time."

With that she left. Barnabas held his face in his hands, "Is there no way to defeat her?"

"Maybe there is," Angelique said with a glimmer of hope in her eyes. "She gave me an idea. She may have cut off Jeb's psychic powers, but what about Roxanne? She also has psychic powers, not as strong as Jeb, but the ability nevertheless. I think this is our only hope."

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Upstairs alone in her room, Roxanne prepared for bed. Suddenly she felt as if someone had grabbed her from behind and tightened their arms around her chest.

"People are trapped somewhere," Roxanne said aloud. "People are trapped somewhere in this house!"

TO BE CONTINUED