The Temple of Benu

Barnabas’ lifeless body lay on the altar. The temple was a spiritual place, existing only on a plane barely intersecting with the world of the living. The temple had once stood in ancient Heliopolis, but through the workings of evil demons posing as gods, like Ra and Benu, the temple had been moved into this other dimension.

Here, Laura Murdoch and others of her kind had a place of refuge and a source of their power. Here was where Laura the phoenix traded places with Barnabas’ body to give her the advantage of surprise. She and her master had failed, leaving Barnabas in this place of limbo.

Though his body was dead, his spirit remained with him, trapped inside a vampire’s body. He was minimally aware of his surroundings, but had no power to open his eyes and look. It was much the same as when he had been locked inside his coffin for so many decades, asleep but aware.

He was unsure how he had been brought to this place and knew he was not protected by his coffin walls. Though there was no lack of light in the place, it was not sunlight.

From somewhere, as if from down a corridor, he heard footsteps, but not like hard shoe heels against a stone floor They sounded more bare or slippered feet, faint, and only perceptible to his vampire senses. Someone approached and he somehow discerned a woman.

Closer the woman came, and Barnabas feared. He could not cry out nor open his eyes to see. Some force held him still on this hard stone altar and he was helpless.

Soon, he was aware that the woman now stood behind the altar, poised over him.

Warm fingers touched his eyes and he was able to open them.

Above his face, looking down with love, was Josette. Her smile was so benevolent, so pure, and he exclaimed, “Josette!”

She beckoned him to sit up and he obeyed.

He turned to face her, his legs dangling over the side of the altar.

“Dearest Barnabas,” Josette uttered softly.

“Where are we?” Barnabas asked. “Heaven?”

Josette put her hand on his cheek and said softly, “No, not heaven. We are in an evil place.”

“Hell, then?” he queried.

“No, not hell either, unless you consider that everywhere that is not heaven is hell. This,” she explained, “is a place prepared where the evil murder of children is planned. We must leave here. I have come to give you a choice and show you the way to make it happen.”

“A choice?”

“Yes. Don’t you know that there is always a choice?”

“Yes,” Barnabas admitted, “I finally know that. No matter what excuses I’ve had in my long, long life, I now realize that I always had choices and I haven’t always chosen well.”

“You will only have to settle accounts on those things you could have chosen. The rest is inconsequential, but you have a choice to make right now.”

“Between?”

“Between resting in peace or returning to the world,” Josette told him.

“After all I’ve done, I may rest in peace?” Barnabas said incredulously.

“That is one choice,” she elucidated. “Your other choice is to return to mortality, but if you do, you return as a vampire, an immortal in a mortal world, filled with bloodlust.”

“Not much of a choice, my sweet Josette,” Barnabas said with anguish. “Why would I be given such a choice?”

“I may not influence you,” Josette said sweetly, “only tell you the consequences of your choices.”

“And if I choose to rest in peace?” Barnabas asked.

“Then you will have no more ability to influence or protect your family,” she said.

“How is it, then, that you walk the earth still, long after you said you were going to be at peace?”

“That was my choice,” she claimed.

“But not one of my choices?”

“No, Barnabas. That is not an option for you.”

“Why?” he demanded.

“Because that would mean that we would be together,” Josette lamented, “and I was not your wife, though we loved each other. We cannot be together now. Your choices do not include being a co-guardian of the Collins family with me. You must either rest or return and work in their dimension.”

Barnabas wept. “Then where is my wife, Angelique?” he asked Josette.

“She is returned to her master. He gave her no choice.” Josette’s melodic voice seemed more tortured now.

“But I thought you said there were always choices?” Barnabas questioned.

“There are,” Josette explained, “but you can’t expect that her master will tell her what her choices are. He will lie to her. He always lies. Because she chooses to believe him, that choice will eliminate all other choices.”

“Is there nothing I can do for her?” Barnabas pleaded.

Josette’s face beamed. “Oh, yes, Barnabas! There is something you can do for her, but I am not permitted to advise you.”

“What will happen to me if I choose to return to the world?” Barnabas asked.

“You will be shown the way back from here to the world. The way back takes you through Diabolos’ realm,” Josette explained.

In the distance, somewhere in the Temple of Benu, angry voices of a man and woman were heard.

Josette said urgently, “There is no more time, Barnabas. You must choose now!”

Barnabas stepped down onto his feet. He did not understand, but trusted Josette’s urgent tone of voice.

“I choose to live, Josette,” Barnabas decided. “Show me the way.”

Leaving the confines of the Temple of Benu, Barnabas and Josette entered a dark world, much like the one he had always known, but existing barely in twilight. He turned and looked at the edifice he had just left. He was standing at the base of a tall, pointed obelisk.

He followed sweet Josette across dunes of reddish sands. In this half-dark place, Josette shone like an angel. Adoration for her swelled in his bosom, but he recognized that the love he had always felt for her was more akin to worship than attraction. He finally preferred the passion he felt for Angelique to the veneration he had always paid to Josette.

Though Barnabas trudged through the sand underneath his feet, it seemed as if Josette walked effortlessly on the surface of the sand, like it was more solid for her than for him. She was always well ahead of him, and though he longed to talk to her, could not keep up.

“Where are we, Josette?” Barnabas called out to her after it seemed like they had been walking many days, or perhaps only hours. He wasn’t certain.

She returned to his side and answered, “The place between.”

“Between heaven and hell?” he wondered out loud.

“Between now and forever,” she answered inarticulately. “Before heaven or before hell.”

“Is this what mankind has to look forward to?” he asked.

Josette smiled, “Some.”

“It seems vast!” he noted.

“It is. And time passes imprecisely here. We may have been traveling days, months, or years and it would seem like a few moments, or it may seem like years and only a split second has passed.”

“Are we alone here?” Barnabas asked. “All we have seen is this reddish sand and no vegetation.”

“No, we’re not alone. There are more souls here than live on the earth. This is not a physical place, my darling,” Josette explained.

Barnabas asked, “If there are others here, why can’t I see them?”

“This is a place of thought and spirit. The matter you feel under your feet is different than what you feel in life. You don’t belong here, Barnabas. You’re not here as a spirit. You are here as flesh and blood. Happens to very few. You have the Murdochs to thank. They’ve done you a favor without even knowing it. I planted the idea in Laura’s mind. She hates me, but she doesn’t always recognize when I’m speaking to her.”

“But why?”

“Why what?”

“Why bring me here with my body?”

“Because what you want to do cannot be done without it.”

“You mean save Angelique from Diabolos?”

“Yes,” she said fearfully.

“The idea frightens you,” Barnabas said and put his hand on her arm. “Why?”

Josette looked deep into Barnabas’ eyes, her own eyes shining with a celestial glow. “Because there is the possibility of failure, and you and Angelique would both be lost.”

“What can you tell me to give me an advantage?” Barnabas pleaded desperately.

Josette smiled. “You already have the only advantage that will make a difference.”

“My love for Angelique?” Barnabas asked.

“No, Barnabas. Flesh and blood. That’s your advantage.”

“How is that an advantage?” Barnabas wondered.

“Because Diabolos will be jealous. It’s what he has always wanted, but cannot have. It gives you certain powers, powers of choice that he can’t override.”

“I don’t understand,” Barnabas said.

“Think about this, Barnabas. Have you ever smoked cigarettes?”

“No,” Barnabas admitted. “But I’ve smoked a pipe.”

“Did you quit?” she asked.

“Yes,” he answered. “Julia insisted on it.”

“Was it difficult?”

“Very difficult. My body kept wanting it.” Barnabas revealed.

“But you subdued your body,” she explained. “Your spirit, which knew the danger of continuing to smoke, overruled your body and your body became cleansed. Your spirit no longer craved it. Is that correct?”

“Yes,” he admitted.

“Now, imagine that you didn’t quit smoking while you had a body, but instead, died and came here as a spirit. You would have to quit smoking, because tobacco doesn’t exist here. But the cravings for it are in the spirit. Without a body and without tobacco, it is very difficult for your spirit to rid itself of the cravings, because there is no body to influence. The time to quit smoking is while you still have a body, because that is when you have the greatest power to choose.”

“And that gives me an advantage over Diabolos?”

“Yes, because with a body, your power of choice is still yours. The power to choose is a gift best exercised with a body. Diabolos will try to frighten you, but remember that he cannot hurt your body, only your spirit. He will have to rely on Angelique to hurt you.”

“How can she hurt me?” Barnabas asked.

“She is in his presence, in the flesh, as it were,” Josette explained. “I saw to that with the help of Quentin’s medium friend, Miriam Rice. She is still a vampire, just like you. Diabolos, of course, has not told her that her possession of her body gives her the right of choice. He wants to torment both of you together, so you can watch each other suffer. He will try to do that in hell, but you have the choice, because of your flesh and blood, to live in the world. He can’t hurt you, but he will try to get her to hurt you, or at least reject you.”

“And if she rejects me?”

“Then the choice is yours to either stay in hell with her, or return to the world without her.”

Professor Stokes’ Cottage

Eliot and Julia Stokes sat quietly at the kitchen table sipping tea and reading the newspaper together. Julia smiled at her new husband. They had been married several weeks now. She missed Barnabas terribly, but was so grateful to Eliot for filling the void. He did not begrudge her the memories of Barnabas Collins.

She was settling into the idea that this quiet life that Eliot led was a good respite from the excitement of supernatural escapades with Barnabas. She had feared she would be bored, but was finding it not to be true. Peace and quiet was not something she had ever particularly yearned to have, but now that she had it, she rather enjoyed it.

Eliot’s friend, Sheriff Drew, dropped by frequently. He occasionally alluded to the White Lady troubles and was relieved that the legend and reports had all died out. Eliot remained outwardly ignorant and Julia was grateful he chose to be evasive, knowing how much Eliot really liked Randall.

Eliot looked up from the section of paper he was reading and said, “My dear, what would you say to a trip to England?”

Julia’s eyes opened wide. “But…”

He frowned. “You’ve grown accustomed to my way of life, I see,” he accused good-naturedly.

“It is nice to rest,” she admitted.

“Well, I’ll leave it up to you. I just figured that we don’t have a lot of time left together, you and I, so we ought to make the best of what is left.”

“You have a good point,” she smiled.

The Between Place

On and on, Josette glided and Barnabas trudged over the sand. The longer they were there, the more he started to see more than just endless dunes. In the distance, he thought he saw villages and the lights of cities. Occasionally, they passed some person, looking as confused as Barnabas felt. Because Josette shone so much, they would ask her directions, and she would lovingly advise each one while Barnabas waited impatiently.

He had asked Josette if the people he was seeing were also flesh and blood visitors to this world. She explained to him that they were spirits, but that his eyes were growing accustomed to seeing them.

Rose Cottage

Eleanor Collins sat in the library reading to Stephen and Katy. They were uncharacteristically attentive and Eleanor was enjoying the small children’s book. The two were enthralled and really starting to like their Auntie El. The house was quiet as fall arrived.

Alex and Amy had taken Damien for a boat ride out on the ocean, just for fun and a chance for Damien to have some individualized attention.

Except for moments with the children like this, Eleanor felt alone again. She had resumed her summer charitable work and her two children, Aaron and Melissa, had returned to school.

Trina had returned to her painting and seemed to have matured a bit. She was more moody than flitty and Eleanor wasn’t sure which she preferred.

The door to the library opened and Mrs. Hammond announced, “Mr. Quentin Collins to see you, Ma’am.”

Eleanor smiled. “Thank you, Mrs. Hammond. Would you take the children up to the nursery?”

Mrs. Hammond nodded while Eleanor went out to the foyer. Mrs. Rice accompanied Quentin, along with Chris and Sabrina Jennings.

They all went into the drawing room after greeting each other.

“What brings you all here?” she asked.

Quentin smiled ruefully. “We came to say, ‘good-bye’.”

“Oh, no!” she exclaimed. “You’re leaving?”

“Yes,” Quentin said. “I’ve got my business to run. I’m giving Chris a job and Sabrina is going to go back to school.”

“How nice for you!” Eleanor said to them. “Amy will be upset that you’re leaving. I’m afraid they’re not here right now. I don’t expect them back for another hour.”

Chris said, “We have at least that long. I think we’ll wait out on the lawn, if you don’t mind. It’s a beautiful evening. Should be a full moon tonight.”

“Not at all,” Eleanor answered.

After Chris and Sabrina were out of the room, Eleanor turned to Mrs. Rice. She took the woman in her arms and embraced her.

“Miriam,” Eleanor said, “I owe you so much! If I can ever do anything for you, please let me know. Thank you for everything you’ve done.”

Miriam smiled. “Thank you for the opportunity, Eleanor. It was my pleasure. I’m happy everything turned out for the best.”

Quentin came forward to Eleanor and lifted her hand up to his lips. She noticed on his hand the scarab ring.

“I will say a brief farewell to you, Cousin Eleanor, but I would especially like to spend some time with Stephen and Katy, if you don’t mind.”

Quentin had spent a lot of time at Rose Cottage in the weeks since the fire. He visited occasionally with Damien, but had really taken a liking to the younger children. Their mother, Amy, loved the idea, due to Quentin’s relationship to her side of the Collins family.

Eleanor smiled. “Of course. They’re in the nursery. You know the way.”

Quentin thanked her and bounded up the stairs.

The Between Place

The terrain had begun to change. Instead of dunes only, there were muddy and dreary rivers running through harder red dirt. Occasional bridges crossed over them, but sometimes they forded the streams. Barnabas always stepped onto the far bank with dry legs and feet. He didn’t really feel the wet while he was in the water.

Ahead of them appeared tall cliffs, rising towards the murky sky. They arrived at an opening and Josette stopped.

“I am not permitted past this point, Barnabas. You must go alone.”

“What is down there?” Barnabas asked fearfully.

“Hell,” Josette said pitifully.

“You said I could go from there back home,” he reminded her.

“Yes,” she said. “When you are ready to leave there, your heart will guide you. Don’t trust your senses. Everything there is false and not what it seems.”

Barnabas looked timidly into the opening and down a torch-lit trail plunging into darkness. He turned around, but Josette was no longer next to him.

She was far off in the distance, but he heard her whisper, “I will be ever near, my darling.”

Collinwood

Weeks had passed and things were returning to normal. David’s and Hallie’s children had returned to their schools. David spent most of the summer in Windcliffe under the care of Dr. Maggie Haskell, who was spending half-days there. Maggie also took care of Chad Jenkins, following Julia’s notes as a guide. She was even finding out things about the unholy blood cells that Julia had not noticed.

Hallie Stokes Collins was exhausted after seeing to her uncle’s wedding reception. She had learned a thing or two about hostessing as a result of the preparations and thought that maybe it wouldn’t be too bad to cut back on her lawyer activities and play Mistress of Collinwood once in a while–once in a great while. Now, with Uncle Eliot and her new Aunt Julia traveling abroad and her children back at school, the old feeling of being out of place among all these Collinses was getting on her nerves.

Her father-in-law, Roger Collins, after recovering from injuries in the fire, had become quite active in the family business. He said he was only seeing to things while his son recovered. David, now home, was pensive and moody still, a normal condition for him.

Carolyn was in the drawing room.

Hallie entered.

“Carolyn,” she said, “I was talking to Roger and we’re wondering about what to do about the Old House now that Cousin Barnabas is dead. I don’t think he left a will.”

Carolyn said, “I don’t know. You’re the lawyer. All I know is that Mother intended for Cousin Barnabas to have the house, him and his heirs.”

“Well, it may very well be that you or David would be his heir. He doesn’t seem to have any other relatives. I’ll have to look into it.”

“Suit yourself,” Carolyn said. She was annoyed. Somehow, it seemed right to her that the Old House should just sit there. Somehow, it seemed like it was Barnabas’ house, alive or dead. If anyone was going to ‘own’ the place, she wanted it to be Willie. No one had more of a right to it and Carolyn was certain that Barnabas would want it that way. She’d hire her own lawyer if she had to.”

The Old House

Willie stood in the Old House drawing room with Hiro Ryokuma. Hiro had stayed on at the Old House at Willie’s invitation. When he mentioned returning to Japan, Willie zealously talked him into staying for a while.

Hiro liked Willie a lot and it almost seemed to others, like Carolyn, that there was some bond between them, something they understood about each other. Carolyn often commented that Hiro was like Willie’s long-lost Japanese brother.

Barnabas’ vintage car sat in the driveway and Hiro polished it every day and took it into town once in a while so it didn’t grow old just sitting there.

The two men were staring at the portrait of a young, modern Barnabas Collins.

Willie said, “I sure hope Barnabas is happy, wherever he is.”

Hiro put a hand on Willie’s shoulder and replied, “I also hope that, my friend, but happiness does not seem to be his destiny.”

“He’s been through so much and he’s helped so many people. It only seems right that he get some peace somewhere.”

Hiro spoke like an ancient sage, saying, “Patience is always rewarded. Sometimes the reward is something new with which to be patient.”

Hell

Angelique, looking as she did in her youth, stood before Diabolos’ evil throne, and hung her head.

“Master,” she pleaded. “I know I have failed you and I know what you’re going to do to me.”

“Yes, Miranda,” he snarled. “You will not escape punishment this time. It will be more exquisite this time than you have ever felt before because this time, not only will you suffer, but your Barnabas will suffer with you.”

Angelique lifted her head and looked at the piercing eyes of her accuser. “But I saved him!” she objected.

“You made a decent effort at it, Miranda,” he gloated, “but I’ve seen to it that he’ll be coming here instead of returning to life. That way, I can intensify your suffering a hundred fold as you watch him suffer too.”

“I beg of you, Master,” Angelique said. “I will do anything…”

“So you’ve said before, but this time I won’t listen to you.”

As he spoke, a horribly ugly demon entered and whispered in Diabolos’ ear.

“What?!” Diabolos shouted as he flung the demon aside.

Angelique looked puzzled while Diabolos composed himself. “Your beloved is here now.”

Angelique wondered at what appeared to be surprise in Diabolos’ countenance at what he had been told.

Soon, next to Angelique appeared Barnabas. He had descended from some crag behind her and was suddenly at her side.

“Angelique!” cried Barnabas. “At last!”

He was young once again, much like when she had known him after coming to Collinwood, but not so young as he had been when they had made love in Martinique.

He took her in his arms and kissed her. She pushed him away, fearful of angering her master.

“Why won’t you kiss me?” Barnabas pleaded.

Angelique just looked away and at Diabolos. “I dare not,” she said weakly.

“But you must, Angelique! He can’t stop you!”

Angelique looked surprised. “You don’t know what he can do, Barnabas!”

Diabolos remained silent, staring with malevolence at Angelique.

“Perhaps not, my darling,” Barnabas said to her, “but I know what he can’t do.”

“I don’t understand, Barnabas,” Angelique wept.

Barnabas turned to the side and faced Diabolos but still spoke to Angelique. “He can’t separate you from my love for you and as long as my love for you is true, he can’t keep us apart. Most of all, he can’t keep us from making choices.”

“Fool!” shouted Diabolos. “I can keep you apart and I will!”

Barnabas hoped that Josette was right about Diabolos not being able to harm him. Barnabas felt the pure evil coming from the being on the throne before him, and sensed the power behind the evil. He had no choice but to trust what Josette had told him.

Angelique was astonished as Barnabas stood fully facing her master and accused, “Liar!”

Diabolos was taken aback.

Barnabas continued, “You are the author of all lies and you are lying now. You have always lied to Angelique and she has believed you. Through your lies to her, you have convinced her to hurt people and destroy whatever love others might have felt for her, because you knew that the only way for you to keep someone is if no one steps forward and claims them.”

“I will have Miranda, or Angelique if you must call her that!” Diabolos threatened. “Justice requires it!”

“What do you know about Justice?!” Barnabas accused.

“It has always been about Justice!” Diabolos cried. Though he growled and menaced, he did not strike out at Barnabas.

“For you it has been about Justice, but there’s something more powerful than Justice, something that Justice can’t exist without.”

“What is that?” Diabolos demanded.

“This!” Barnabas exlaimed.

Turning to Angelique, Barnabas said, “My dear Angelique, you have hurt me more than any man should ever have to bear. You have tormented me for centuries. You have tricked and connived and injured me. My family you have persecuted and killed. No one has more cause than I do to hate you and if Justice were my only choice, you would stay here and rot. But I come here not to claim my rights to have Justice, but to claim my rights to have Mercy. I forgive you, Angelique. I forgive you of all the pain and heartache, all the grief you have caused and for every foul deed perpetrated against me. I do this of my own free will.”

Here, he shot a glare at Diabolos. “I choose to forgive you. It is my right!”

Diabolos laughed. “Fool!” he gnashed. “That is not enough!”

“She is my wife!” Barnabas declared. “I’m taking her with me.”

“She cannot go and neither can you! If you try to take her, I will destroy you, body and soul. You will cease to exist.”

Barnabas turned to Angelique and said, “He’s lying, my darling. He can’t stop either one of us. Only one thing remains to free us…”

With that, Diabolos roared loudly and Angelique cowered to the ground.

Barnabas dropped down to the ground next to her and pleaded with her while holding both of her hands, “Don’t you see, Angelique!? I can save you.”

“But how?” Angelique asked.

“When someone loves you unconditionally and they are willing to even go through hell to save you,” Barnabas explained, “there is not anything your master can do to stop them. Feel my hands. We are not spirits like the other creatures here. We are flesh and blood. We have the choice, not him.”

“How can you love me?” Angelique said bitterly. “I can see how you declare that you forgive me, but I do not understand how you can love me.”

“I can’t understand it, either, Angelique. I just know that I do. He convinces people to do horrible things, so that no one will love them. I found it out because no matter what horrible things I did, Julia Hoffman loved me. Her love saved me and now, my love can save you, but only if your love for me is strong enough to save us both, because I will not leave this place without you. And so, my dearest Angelique, to free us both, you must stand up to him and claim me like I claimed you.”

“No, Barnabas,” Angelique protested. “It doesn’t work that way. I can’t!”

“You must!” Barnabas said as he shook her.

Angelique looked up into his eyes. She had not noticed that while they knelt together, noxious, sulfuric flames had crept close to them both to surround them. She began to glance from side to side in fear, but something in Barnabas’ gaze caught her and she could not look away.

“Even the flames are lies,” Barnabas told her.

She stared for a long moment, searching for truth in those eyes she loved so deeply.

The look in his eyes prompted her to stand and say aloud, “Barnabas, you promised me things so long ago with your words and your body and then you betrayed me. You used me to satisfy your sexual desires and then tossed me aside. You tried to kill me. You have physically abused me. Yet, for all the things you did to me, I forgive you, of my own free will.”

Amid the inferno that gathered around her, she stood and faced Diabolos. “That is my choice!” she thundered. “He is my husband and I am going with him.”

“No!” Diabolos screamed.

The entire foundation of hell rocked with his protest and Angelique had a moment of doubt, but Barnabas grabbed her and said, “No, my beloved one. No doubts!”

She looked at her former master again and when his long lament ended, she laughed at him and continued to laugh.

Diabolos shouted back. “You may return to the world of the living, but you cannot escape the curse I have placed on both of you. Neither of you will ever rest and no one will be able to love you and you won’t be able to love anyone. You will live like that through all eternity!”

Barnabas put his arm around his wife and led her back to the place where he had climbed down. Taking her by the hand, he entered a different tunnel to the right and climbed up, pulling and helping her along the way.