Subj: Consequences of Falling ch.21
Date: 7/18/01 11:15:01 PM Central Daylight Time
From: Nicole

December 13, 1972, Collinwood, 5:00 PM

"We're here." Quentin turned to Constance, and, with a glint of humor in his eyes, said, "I'm sorry."

Constance laughed in spite of everything she felt. "This is the moment of truth, isn't it? This moment will set the tone for the entire trip."

Quentin leaned in and kissed her. "I can't assuage your fears but I want to tell you that I think things will go well. It can't be all that bad."

Constance wanted to believe him but could not. She twisted her silver wedding bound mechanically around her finger but continued to hold Quentin's gaze. She knew that he was trying to understand her fears, however irrational they might be. Most of the time he succeeded, but Costance was pushing it this time. He was weary. So was she. "Okay," she finally said. "Lets go in. It seems that the world won't come to our car."

They left teh car and walked to the Collinwood doors. Before she could knock, Angelique opened the doors. "Madeline!" sang Constance angrily. "How are you, my 'sister?'"

"No one's here but us. You can drop the 'sister' thing for awhile." Angelique looked around Constance and asked, "Did you bring Quentin?"

"I don't leave home without him." Tentatively, they walked inside, put at ease by the seeming normality of the house. Constance eyed Angelique, who seemed frazzled and tired. "What's wrong?"

"I still can't tell you."

"Dammit! This is ridiculous. I'm here. What's the...?" began Constance before a figure at the top of the stairs caught her eye. She watched as the figure slowly came into the light and began to descend the stairs. She reached out childishly for Quentin's hand, and, once she grabbed it, squeezed it so hard she was convinced she had cut off circulation to his fingers. "Josef."

"Connie, darling! How are you?" exclaimed Josef when he reached the ground floor. "Let me get a good look at you. It's been so long."

"No! Stay away." Constance moved behind Quentin and buried her face in his back. She could not look at Josef and she sure as hell could not let him touch her. "Nothing changes for us. If you've seen me once, you've seen me a thousand times."

"You're so cynical," sniped Josef, "but I suppose you always were. And I suppose you're my new brother in law? Is it Quentin or Grant if you don't mind me asking? You see, the papers referred to you as the 'elusive author Grant Douglas' but everyone here calls you Quentin."

"Grant Douglas is a pseudonym."

"All right, Quentin. It's great to finally meet you."

Constance was relieved to feel Quentin pull away from Josef. She walked out from behind Quentin and stood beside him, his hand firmly grasped in hers. "Josef," she asked, "what do you want?"

"Want? But don't you know? I'm going to marry Carolyn."

Constance could not believe it. She looked frantically to Angelique, whose distressed expression proved her worst fears to be true. "All right. Everyone in the drawing room now!"

"Even him?" asked Josef as he pointed accusingly to Quentin.

"Why not?" growled Constance. "This is a 'family affair.'"

Josef shrugged and entered the drawing room before anyone else. Constance urged Quentin to go ahead of her but he firmly stood his ground. "Maybe I didn't hear him correctly," murmured Quentin, "but did he just call me his 'brother in law?'"

"Um...yeah."

"How? You don't have parents. How the hell do you have a brother?"

Constance took his hands into hers and looked into his eyes. She did not want to tell him but she knew that he would not let the subject drop. "He's not my 'brother' brother. It's like the brotherhood of humanity; we're not kin but we are the same thing."

"Of God...he's not a...?"

"Yeah he is. He's my twin, my male double so to speak." She kissed his cheek and whispered, "I need to talk to Angelique alone for a moment. Please go in there and try not to start an arguement with him, no matter how easy it may seem. Don't get on Josef's bad side."

Quentin grumbled something unintelligible but kissed Constance's forehead and went into the drawing room. She turned to Angelique and touched her shoulder, bringing the woman's ineasy gaze onto her. "Why didn't you tell me that Josef was the problem?"

"I never had a private moment!" said Angelique defensively. "I couldn't tell you anything until we were together. I didn't expect him to reveal himself so quickly."

Constance nodded in strained agreement. Tracking Josef's movements was like tracking the weather: once can be fairly sure where a storm might hit but one can never be certain until the rain begins to fall. "How has he been towards you?"

"Unbearable," moaned Angelique.

"I hate to say this, but he'll never let you be."

"I don't know if I want him to."

"Not againn!"

"He's still so beautiful."

"And he's still an asshole. He's never going to change," warned Constance.

"You did!"

Constance ignored her comment and held Angelique's hand as they entered the drawing room. Quentin and Josef stood away from one another, eyeing the other one with cold, critical glances. She had no clue as to what had been said, but she knew that it had been harsh. Constance locked the doors and stood in front of them, pressing her body into the strong wood as her gaze fell heavily onto Josef. "We can drop teh charade. You are amongst the knowledgeable."

"Thank God!" he exclaimed. "I've never been good at these false pretenses."

"You'd never have to deal with them if you would only keep your distance."

"But that would be no fun! Besides," said Josef, his eyes shifting lovingly to Angelique, "you know I can never stay too far away from you."

"Shut up!" insisted Angelique as she inched away from him.

"But it's true," he whispered as he approached her. "I can still remember the way you move, the way you feel, the way you taste. There's nothing I'd rather do than to take you now and put your fears to rest. Angelique, you know you want me. You know that the easiest thing to do is to admit your desire and come to me."

Constance glanced at Angelique and recognized the swoon she was falling under. Constance hated that such things could happen but there was nothing she could do about it. If Angelique had not desired Josef, he would have no affect on her. She did and he knew it all too well. The moment Josef touched her, Angelique fell into his arms unconscious. He picked her up and carefully laid her out on the loveseat. Constance caught the remains of a smile lingering on his lips as he turned to face her. "You love making her squirm, don't you?"

"I enjoy being appreciated, as do you. And I can't believe you're married! It's nice to see that you decided to let one live," sniped Josef. He turned to Quentin and, in faux shock, said, "Oh, I'm sorry. Do you actually know what she is?"

"Yes."

"So you can probably infer what I am?"

"You're an incubus," answered Quentin.

"And you're probably worried about your lovely little succubus being molested by little old me, right? No need to fear! Constance has as much to fear from me as she would from you."

"I don't have a history of molesting her. Why should you be trusted?"

"Look at her!" insisted Josef. "Now look at me. There's a resemblence between us that you'd have to be blind to miss. It's as if we're alternate sides of the same being. If Constance is not my sibling, we were definitly cut from the same cloth by the great creator. I can no more hurt her as hurt myself."

"You save me out of vanity?" asked Constance.

"Be glad I save you! You know others would risk much to take what a pretty girl like you could get."

Constance let the subject drop. Arguing with an incubus was pointless, especially when he was right. "Why are you going to marry Carolyn? Don't say that you love her because even I know that's a lie."

"You've got me there: I don't love her. She's a pretty girl but that's about it." Josef looked around the room before his eyes fell onto Angelique's sleeping form. "I'm just curious. I want to know how the other half lives."

"What if she wants children?" asked Quentin.

"Well that would be too bad because a childhood illness has left me sterile. Isn't that right, sister?"

"I wouldn't know," said Constance. "You stayed with our mother and your father. We were never close."

"It doesn't matter," muttered Josef. "I can defend my own story. I just want to know why you care about what I do?"

"I don't. I just can't believe that you've convinced yourself that you can live a normal life with Carolyn," chided Constance.

"Aren't you attempting to live a normal life with Quentin?"

Constance glanced to Quentin, relief washing over his body as Quentin began to laugh at Josef. "I know what she is and I don't care. I have no expectations of normality," said Quentin.

"Lucky you, Constance. Lucky, lucky you." Josef knelt next to Angelique, gently smoothing the hair from her face as he murmured rhymes in the ancient language. "I've always been fond of the old girl, Constance. She's always kept my attention."

"Is this your way of saying that you won't hurt her?" asked Constance.

"I've never hurt her before. I know that she's been hurt and hurt badly."

"And you believe you can fix her?"

"Can you fix him?" snapped Josef.

"Touche." Constance unlocked the doors and motioned for Quentin to join her. "Josef, we'll talk again."

"Well, we are living in the same house." Josef looked awkwardly from Angelique to Constance and asked, "Do you actually trust me alone with Angelique?"

"I trust that you don't want to get caught fondling my fake sister in front of your fake fiancee. You might be reckless, but you're not stupid. I know she'll be all right."

"So you trust me?"

"No. I can't stand to look at you right now," murmured Constance.

"I'm not the same person who hurt you," said Josef solemnly.

"Well, you'll have to excuse me if I don't believe you." Constance turned away, ran up the stairs, and burst through the door to the landing. The moment she closed the door, she felt the tremors spread violently through her body, causing her to fall to the floor. She always shook when she was nervous, when she felt like everything could go dangerously wrong. She crawled to the wall and curled intot a ball, burying her head in her forearms to stop the shaking. When she felt hands close in on her shoulders, she knew it had to be Quentin. She fell into his arms and began to sob. "I'm so afraid," she moaned.

"There's nothing to be frightened of," he whispered. "I won't let him hurt you."

"You don't get it! Josef is harbinger of trouble. He has the uncanny ability to make any situation go from good to bad and bad to worse. I'm not afraid of him touching me. I'm afraid that he'll hurt others...like you."

"He's not going to hurt me."

"You don't know him the way I do! He'll hurt whomever's in his way or whomever he feels like hurting."

"But he can't hurt me," insisted Quentin. "Listen, if you're really worried about him, we should tell Carolyn everything about him."

"And then your family will know you've married a monster. No! You don't want that and, surprisingly, neither do I."

"Then we have to wait for his next move."

"I suppose your right." Constance let Quentin help her to her feet. While rising, she happened to notice a silver chain beneath his shoe. Without paying much mind to it, she grabbed it, wadding it into a ball and ramming it into her coat pocket. Soon, she felt the pendant that must have been attached to it burrowing inot her palm and she let it go. When she looked into ther palm, she noticed the light imprint of a five-pointed star.

Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.