Subj: Collinwood 2001 Year One Part Twelve
Date: 4/9/01 10:16:13 AM Central Daylight Time
From: N.E. Collins

"But then, it must be SO hard for you to have to face the awful truth about that scoundrel of a father of yours. He was my only brother. Well, the only one who lived, but why he couldn't have taken after his father instead of that worthless no count uncle of ours...well, it's just too bad, that's what I've always said."

Liz was just listening halfway as her aunt did her usual song and dance about what was wrong with the Collins family and how hard she had tried to steer them all in a proper direction, yadda, yadda, yadda.

But then the old lady said something that made Liz see red. "Tell me, Lizzie, were you as surprised as I was when you discovered your father in bed with your friend, Betty Hanscomb?"

"Aunt Nora, I will not have you saying such things! I don't care how ill you may be. You will not continue this ridiculous discussion any further! Do you understand me?"

Nora Collins was quite flustered that her niece had given her such a talking to. The first words out of her mouth in response showed how very shaken she had been by this treatment. "Well, Lizzie,..."

"And DON'T call me THAT!"

This only made Nora appear more feeble, but she continued. "But, dear, you WERE friends with Betty, and even though her uncle was our family butler you always treated her like she was important. And when I think of how she did such a terrible thing in return for ALL your kindness. It wasn't just your father. It was her too."

"That is enough, dammit!" Liz rarely if ever swore. "You lay in this bed all day long and you do NOTHING. Nothing! You read these trashy novels and you eat that damn chocolate you have hidden behind all those too many pillows you prop yourself up on all damn day. My father was the finest man to ever grace the halls of this great house and if you don't stop talking about him like this then I don't know what I might do. Do you hear me?"

Nora got her second wind and even though she felt afraid she knew she still had complete control of a very large sum of money. She may have been bedridden and mostly by choice, but she was a very wealthy woman and she could still call the shots with Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard. "I more than hear you, niece. And now you listen back. Because I am going to say this once and just once. The night of that piano concert back when you were still in high school? That was the night when your father, Jamison, gave his permission for you to have that slumber party here. And Betty Hanscomb was in attendance at that very same party. And later that evening, much later when the rest of the girls had gone to sleep you woke up and discovered that Betty was missing. So you went looking for her. And when you walked by your father's bedroom door you heard her voice and without thinking to knock you turned the knob and walked right in and there she was! In bed, NAKED with YOUR father. It happened. And that girl is the product of their unholy union. Victoria Winters is YOUR sister."

Liz felt a pressure, a most terrible beating in her skull. She hugged the sides of her head fearfully as if she thought her head would burst wide open. Her eyes quivered violently from to side to side and she moaned like an animal caught in a trap. Then all at once a severe calm came over her and for just a space of a moment she appeared as a blank page may have had it come to life as a person. Suddenly, another look replaced the emptiness. She reached in her handbag and put on her spectacles.

Nora gasped and said with a fearful glee. "You never wear those glasses unless...unless....you're not Lizzie! You're one of the other ones, aren't you? But...which one are you? And, if it's not asking too much, how many of you ARE there?"

Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.