Subj: Consequences of Falling ch. 50
Date: 8/6/01 5:13:22 PM Central Daylight Time
From: Nicole

January 1, 2001, Middle of Nowhere 10:00 PM

"Dammit to Hell!" Cameron kicked his rotting steel carcass of a van. It had finally gone out on him. Now he was stuck in the middle of nowhere, his only ride unfixable and no one knew his location. To top it off, it was snowing. Cameron was a from the southeast and snow was foreign to him. As well as he had thought he had prepared, he found out the hard way that it was inadequate. It killed him because he knew that it could have been so different.

Cameron had gotten an offer to remain in the south. While buying provisions in Charleston, he ran into Kelene. They had originally met in 1997. It had been the day before Alyssa's funeral. Only later did he learn that Kelene was Alyssa's half-sister. He would not have guessed by their looks: Alyssa was a tall, fair skinned blonde while Kelene was a petite raven haired girl-child with a cafe-au-lait complexion. Had he known that they were kin he would have let her be. But he had not known and instinctively followed his urge to have the small beauty. He had believed that he was failing until he awoke in her small apartment after one of his blackouts. "God Cameron! I thought you were a goner."

Cameron could not explain what had happened to him to Kelene. He did not understand it himself. But he was aching and Kelene let him sleep it off at her place. When he awoke, he found her lying next to him. Cameron had not expected her exquisite hands to wrap around his neck or her lush lips to press to his, but he did not resist her. He happily made love to her, enjoying the feel of her lusciously lithe body beneath his.

Only after a duration of 2 months did Cameron begin to feel guilty. Kelene was 17. He wondered where her family was and why she did not attend school. She was an intelligent, beautiful young woman. She deserved more than a run-down apartment in a dissipated section of Savannah. What could he give her? Cameron was moody, transient, and impossible to employ for the long term. His blackouts only made it seem more baffling to him. Kelene seemed not to care and would nurse him back to health each morning after. Cameron could not understand it.

In an odd experiment, Cameron sat in front of a mirror in an attempt to see what Kelene saw. His face was not his own. It belonged to his biological father. Everyone told him so, their voices and eyes filled with revulsion as they said so. He did not understand how they could dislike him because of his father's actions. In any sense, the face was reasonably handsome even if the lips were slightly thin. His hair was dark brown, seemingly darker because of his pale skin. These attributes were his mother's. Cameron knew he would not stand out in a crowd if it were not for his eyes, bright blue orbs that seemed to glisten in even minimal light. He was not sure where the eyes came from since neither of his parents had blue eyes. It was not impossible to explain away: blue eyes are a recessive trait. Cameron had merely won that round in the genetic lottery.

Cameron decided that, at least physically, he was not a bad catch. Mentally speaking, he was not disadvantaged. Throughout school he had been hailed as an intelligent young man. He had began college with great promise, but he had been forced to quit because of the blackouts. The word Cameron most often heard when interviewing for jobs was "over-qualified," which he was sure was code for "hell no!" It did not matter. The blackouts would have made steady employment impossible.

Yet none of this mattered to Cameron when he was with Kelene. He believed himself too cynical at 24. At 17 and with a cryptic past, Kelene managed to remain pure. To Kelene, every day was a revelation. A snow flurry, a rainbow, or a sunrise still held sway over her and she had a way of making those things charm Cameron. Through the window of their shoddy apartment, Cameron saw the world as perfect...at least as long as the sun continued to shine on Kelene's light sienna skin. He did not know where she received her money or where she found her freedom, but he did not care. Cameron admired Kelene for her emotional honesty. After 8 months as lovers, Cameron had found family in Kelene. He loved her and it scared him to death.

Cameron believed himself to be damned. He had never known his father. He lived perfectly well without one, adoring his fragile mother as he did no one else. He could have hated her for marrying Russell Crudup and moving him to Georgia. He could have hated her for adding two sisters to the family. But Cameron could not hate her no matter how hard he tried. He loved her to the day she and the family were wiped from the earth. He had adored Alyssa until her still unexplained death. Everyone he ever loved ended up dead. Cameron did no want anything to happen to Kelene. He left her after a year.

"Why?" she had begged. "Is it because of what I am?"

"What?"

"You don't know?" He shook his head. "I'm surprised you don't hear them scoffing at me now. It's a hard existence: never white enough for the white kids or black enough for the black kids. After my father died 2 years ao, both families began giving me money to keep me quiet. I shouldn't take it but it's all I have."

Cameron took her into his arms, chastely kissing her forehead as he pressed her into him. "I never knew."

"Are you going to deny me like they do?"

"I don't want to deny you," he explained, "but I can't stay."

Cameron did not believe the words as he spoke them. He saw her a year later in Charleston and they made love. In 1999, she found him in Indianapolis. They had dinner, reminisced, and left one another. In November 2000, they had a one night stand in Memphis. Cameron would have liked Kelene to stay but she claimed that she had to move on. It served him right. Cameron did not expect to see Kelene after that.

When Cameron saw Kelene in Charleston on the seventh of December, his heart dropped. She was beautiful, more breathtakingly gorgeous than she had been when he first met her. She was only 20, 6 months from 21. She was too exquisite for her age. Cameron knew she would not approach him and that he had to make the first move. Carefully, he walked up behind her and tapped her shoulder. "Keelie," he whispered, "it's good to see you."

As Kelene turned to face him, a smile began to overtake her face. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. "Oh Cameron, be happy for me!" she squealed. "I'd love it if even you could be happy for me."

"Why?"

"I have a job."

"In Savannah?"

"No I'm going to Louisiana."

"Louisiana?" repeated Cameron suspiciously. "What about whey 'they' give you?"

"Damn them," she whispered solemnly. "They don't want me so I don't want their money." Kelene paused a moment, taking just enough time to release Cameron and back away before speaking again. "I want you to come with me."

Almost every fiber of Cameron's being wanted to go with her. He knew that he could not follow Kelene, though. He still believed her to be in danger. Besides, he had a mission. Reluctantly, Cameron shut his eyes and said, "I can't now."

"Why?"

"I'm going to find my father."

"Do it!" Kelene wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him gently but without chastity. "I understand. You have to know."

"Thanks. And if you ever bother to look for me, I'll be in Collinsport, Maine."

"Collinsport?" He nodded. "Good. Maybe--just maybe--I'll be able to get in touch with you."

"Good."

Now Cameron was stuck in the middle of no where. He was not close to Collinsport. He was not close to finding his father. To top it off, he had blown off a life with Kelene to freeze to death in the snow. "I suppose I am damned!" he muttered as he threw some things into a canvas bag.

The moment he locked the van, Cameron noticed a black dot wandering through the snow. As it moved closer, he realized it was a car. After offering God a humble "thank you," Cameron began to scream, attempting to pull the car towards him. To his surprise, it stopped beside him. The passenger door opened and he heard a duo say, "Get in now!"

Cameron jumped in, throwing his bag in the floorboard as he tried to situate himself. He looked up to see the most beautiful blue eyes he had ever seen staring at him. "Hello," she purred. "I'm Angelique."

Cameron began to speak but he turned to be caught by a pair of large, hypnotic brown eyes. Their owner had chin-length brown hair and a face so beautiful that he gasped. She seemed to hesitate before saying, "I'm Astrid. Who are you?"

"Me?" he asked. "I'm Cameron."

Astrid turned to Angelique and the women burst into nervous laughter. Cameron did not understand it. Astrid turned back to him and said, "I'm so sorry, Cameron. We aren't always the nicest women. But welcome to our little world anyway. I--for one--am please to have you on board."

Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.