Subj: PASSION ATE DARK SHADOWS CONCLUSION/EPILOGUE
Date: 5/3/00 8:45:56 AM Central Daylight Time
From: N.E. Collins

Just when they thought that Bathia Mapes was going to accomplish in succeeding to cure Barnabas of his vampire affliction, Angelique had reached from Hell itself and snuffed out the old woman's life-force as if she had swatted a fly! And so the roll call of the dead and the dying went on and on. There was the occasional strangled victim found on the docks of Collinsport, mostly women of ill repute found near The Eagle Tavern. Each of them had been apparently bitten round about the area of the neck, but no great deal of attention had been given this peculiar similarity in the local
press.

The most recent addition to the dead was that of Lt. Nathan Forbes. He had discovered that Barnabas was "the Collinsport strangler" and he had a clue as to his whereabouts, so he encouraged Naomi Collins to discover her wayward son's hiding place. When Naomi witnessed Barnabas biting Millicent Collins on the terrace garden of the great house she screamed with such horror that it even touched the echo of what had once been the soul of Barnabas.

Nathan was strangled by Barnabas because he blamed him for the suicide death of his mother, Naomi. Naomi took her own life as a result of all the tragedies thus ensued, but mostly that of her two children's deaths, and the subsequent rebirth of her son. She would rather that he had remained dead and for a mother to wish such upon her own child! It had all proved to be too much for her, and with her constant craving for alcoholic consumption, well, she could not distinguish that her thoughts had taken on such a destructive bent. Not to mention that she fell into the exact criteria of Angelique's curse on her son. Anyone who loved him would DIE!

Natalie's right hand felt the slight bulge that would soon grow in her abdomen as she stood before the fireplace in the drawing room of Collinwood. She now knew why she had fainted that time when Phyllis Wicke had been dragged of to the goal, and why she had been ill for too many mornings to count! She was with child, Joshua's child. She wanted to tell him, but she could not bring herself to do so. His wife had only just killed herself, his daughter was dead and his son should be. And Natalie herself was feeling less and less inclined to share anything of herself with the man, although she still loved him it was becoming less as well. A loud popping sound from the flames in the fireplace caught her immediate attention!

She turned abruptly at the loud unexplainable sound and saw a blurred object in the flames. No, it was not an object. It looked more like an image of an object. She was just about to decide that her mind was playing tricks on her and look away when the image took on a more clearly defined form, and she screamed in terror when she saw a grinning skull leering at her from the flickering flames! And then the woman's laughter started and it grew and grew until it filled the room! The skull took on another visage and it was the face of her former servant, Angelique! Natalie tried to tear herself away, but she found she was frozen to the spot and she could not turn away despite her best efforts.

The laughter stopped as the face stopped increasing in size, but the eyes in the face began to grow and move towards the Countess. Natalie screamed and threw up her hands as if to ward off an attacker! Then these words were spoken by a disembodied Angelique, "Forget and Love Him No More!"

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Joshua Collins returned from the Collins Family crypt where he had earlier instructed Ben Stokes to chain his poor son, Barnabas in the coffin in the sealed and secret room of the crypt. He knew he ought to have destroyed him, but he could not bring himself to do so. Unbeknownst to him if he had it would have surely meant his own doom, for to bring an end to Barnabas' suffering would have been a show of great parental affection. Angelique's curse would have ended Joshua's life for loving his son so very much. No. Joshua took the cowards way out instead, and saved his own skin in the bargain.

As he stepped into the foyer of the great house he noticed a large gathering of luggage at the bottom of the stairway, and as his eye looked upward there was the Countess Natalie duPres coming down as regal as the day she had stepped foot into the Old House. She did not appear to be the same woman he had been sharing a bed with anymore. Her demeanor was cold and calculating and cruel. But he did not notice this enough at the first as he blurted out like an anxious schoolboy, "Where are you going, my dearest?"

Natalie stopped on the stairs for a heartbeat or two as she meticulously sized up her prey at the bottom of the landing. Then she smiled inwardly as she proceeded and said icily, "My dearest? Is that all the sweetness you have to offer me after all that I have been pouring over you these past few months? Pouring honey and wine and rose petals from an inexhaustible cornucopia that was the fountain of my love?"

She reached near to him and he grabbed at her, but she violently threw his advancing hands off of her person! "Do not think to EVER touch me in ANY way AGAIN!" Joshua fell back stunned! He could not believe that this was happening. What exactly was happening, he wondered? "It is over, Joshua, it is all finally over!"

"What are you talking about woman? What is over?"

"Everything is. All our trouble and tragedies have come full circle. And all spells and curses have been lifted and ended. Angelique put a spell on me to love you and only you! It has been ended now and so has my love for you. Barnabas. Poor sweet and foolish young man that he was has been freed from his curse! But, OH! for men and all their dalliances there would never be again a scorned woman to wreak such havoc and vengeance! He was but his
father's son, hmmmm?"

Joshua looked down forlornly and merely nodded his head in reply.

Natalie took hold of his face and tenderly lifted it upward and gazed directly at him. "There is one thing more to say before I depart and that is I am carrying your child," Joshua's eyes took on an inner glow. "And I am going to need a large sum of money not to create further scandal," the light went out of his eyes. "And then my dear lord and master, I can be on my merry way, at long last!"

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EPILOGUE

Amelia took the basket containing the little babe into the foundling home in Boston. All she found was a note which read: "Her name is Victoria. I cannot take care of her." And there was a 100 dollar gold piece in a velvet pouch around her sweet little neck.

THE END