Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2007 18:15:53 -0400 From: J Subject: DOCTOR WHO, JESSE AND JEREMY 72 DOCTOR WHO, JESSE AND JEREMY 72 Light rain with a few bursts of lightning and thunder illuminate the docks at Collinsport Pier, not far from the bar and grill Blue Whale, Maggie Evan's and Joe Haskell's Cottage, the cliffs overlooking the sea...and Collinwood mansion, all doused by a thin coat of falling precipitation... Anyone's voice: "A storm rolls into Collinsport, Maine in the year 1976, just four days short of a major July 4th fireworks celebration. Inside the most unusual but very popular tourist attraction called Collinwood, guests of Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, matriarch of the Collins family, enjoy a true haunted house experience...and some are romantic about it..." As they settled down for the night after having romantic sex, Jesse and Jeremy moved under the covers. Jesse wore an old T shirt of David's that said something like Yellow Submarine and Jeremy wore a long T shirt and nothing else. "I feel...I feel...that something's watching us...look at that!" He pointed up to a microphone. "Do you see that?" "Yeah, a microphone!" Jesse sat up in bed. A knock startled them both as they watched the microphone above, move from over their heads and past the bed overhang toward the door. "Come in," Jeremy said. David opened the door and the mike came over his head. "I came to see if you two are okay for the night." "Yeah," Jesse pointed up, "But... but... but..." Nodding, Jeremy explained, "That microphone..." David walked into the room and saw the mike move with him. "Oh that. Happens all the time." He turned on the lights and the mike vanished. "What...the...hell?" Jesse blinked. "It's just that this place..." David said. As he said that the door behind him started to creak open a bit more and Jeremy jumped out of bed to see hands trying to keep the door from sliding open on its own. Jesse, out of the corner of his eye caught the floating red light that came and rose out of the bathroom area. David continued his explanation, "This place used to be a movie...well, a TV studio filmed here and on their way back to New York, they got into a traffic accident with their van and all of them died...fell off a cliff in the snow." Jesse turned to see a large old fashioned 1960s camera on a trolley moving from the bathroom toward them. It said ABC on the side. "Don't let it bother you. Sometimes you barely notice them..." "Oh, so they're just more ghosts?" Jeremy asked. "Fairly benign ones," David said, "I wish we had more of that type about." "I just saw a stage hand from keeping that door from closing!" Jeremy was incredulous. "Yeah, they do that. You might also see someone in a mirror who's not in the room really. A TV camera..." "Yeah," Jesse said shakily and hid his lower face behind the covers of the bed, which he was still in. "It'll go away," David said. "The clothes are okay?" "Yeah, they're fine," Jeremy said, "David, about Barnabus, are you sure you're telling us everything." As they spoke, they both tried to ignore hammering. It sounded like a prop man was trying to fix a piece of the set. A fly landed on Jeremy's nose. David acted as if this was not happening. "Sure, you think I'm holding back on you after all I already told you?" "Is it possible he's the Doctor?" "I don't know." David shrugged, "He'd have had to have landed here a pretty long time ago...as far back as 1966 or maybe even longer than that. I mean if your Doctor can live as long as you say...maybe, that would explain so much..." "What would?" "Why he seems so much like he's stuck in the past...why all those spooky things that follow him. Once he killed a vampire..." As the ghost camera focused closely on him, Jesse pulled the covers up over his head some more, "A...a vampire!!!!" He hid under the sheets. "Yeah, the Doctor's encountered vampires too. On Earth as well as in space, in other universes, too," Jeremy said. "I'm sorry, I doubted you." "It's okay," David said, "This place. It does that to even the best of relationships. As far as the Doctor....Barnabus is just like that. Very old fashioned. Look at long it took him to get telephones installed in the old house. Close to ten years. And also aliens and monsters and stuff tend to get trounced by him. They sorta follow him around. Like trouble...." "Doc's like that, too," Jesse said from the bed covers, "Lotsa monsters...but...I feel better with him around when they're around and now that he's not..." "Oh you big baby, David and I will protect you." Jeremy spouted. David laughed and sat on the bed and held a post. Jeremy wondered if that were symbolic for something. "Tell some more about this Doctor...I mean that you already haven't..." Jeremy laughed, "I've told you so much already." David stared. "Alright, alright. Let's see. He plays the recorder...oh, that's an instrument like a flute..." "Badly..." Jesse chimed in from the covers. "Gives blow jobs..." "Greatly." Jesse added. "He sings sometimes..." "Badly." "When he's in a really good mood he dances." "Not so badly." David looked over at Jesse. Jeremy thought some more, "He can divvy up devices and machinery at a moment's notice..." "Goodly." Jesse added. Jeremy looked at him and raised his eyebrows. "Greatly. Fantastically..." "...and out of almost nothing at all... a few bit of wire and tin cups..." Jeremy day dreamed. David stood up, "I can tell you both really love this guy. He sounds incredible. Ah well, it'll be midnight in a few. I'm beat. I'll help you look around again tomorrow and don't worry..." he gave Jeremy a fake punch to the stomach, "We'll think of something to reunite you three..." As he made to leave, a ghostly crew, a stagehand held the door open for him. When he left, a camera that was following him, vanished and an overhead microphone followed it into the heavens... "Did...did you see that?" Jesse shoved his whole head under the covers and dove headfirst toward the bottom of the bed. Jeremy opened the covers there and stuck his dick in. "That'll give me bravery..." "The tribes of the Amazon believed that..." Jeremy said and his dick grew under the sheets. "Let's put that to the test..." Jesse opened his mouth and took Jeremy's dick into it. Jeremy stood at the foot of the bed, Jesse sucked his penis from under the sheets, the wrong way around, on the bed top. Jesse's tongue found its way around each bit of lusting skin on Jeremy's manhood, even as he did it, Jesse moaning with the cock in his mouth. Jeremy writhed, "Oh. Fuck. Shit. Jesse." Jesse's hands reached out from the sides of the bed sheet and touched Jeremy's soft but muscled thighs as he held on. This soon led to Jeremy getting off and then he got onto the bed to hug Jesse... In the great canopy bed, Jesse and Jeremy hugged each other, rolled on the bed, hugging, kissing, caressing. Shafts grew between them. Romantic sex. When it was over, Jeremy dressed...one thought on his mind, "Is the Doctor now Barnabus Collins...?" Jesse remained nude and fell asleep fast... "Collinwood stands oblivious to those who reside within it. I am Jeremy Sumpter, movie actor, tv actor, time traveler. Here beside me is my lover, one of two lovers, Jesse McCartney. We had sex, naturally, and the night wore on, both of us upset at not finding the Doctor, man or woman. For some reason, Barnabus Collins filled my mind. Had I known what I would discover about that, I would have fought it, would have stayed where I was..." Jeremy is in another of David's long long T shirts, sleeveless, and white-gray. He also wears a pair of cut off denim shorts, a bit tight for him as David's not as big. Jesse is beside Jeremy, sleeping and snoring. "Jesse and I discussed the fact that we might be in a parallel universe where superheroes, ghosts, and TV characters are all real. To us, that is besides the point..." Barnabus' hand gripped the coffin side and opened it. He sat up in his coffin a moment before glancing at Willie Loomis, who was in a trance. "Put that away, Willie." His eyes were dark and his grimace malicious. Willie had taken the cross off the coffin. "And hide all the mirrors." "Barnabus, please..." "You know you must obey me, Willie. Obey and trust me...this time." "What are you going to do?" "In past times, I would have punished you severely for questioning me like that, Willie." Barnabus stepped out of his coffin, which was in the basement inside a cell. The cell door was open. "The New House has so many people in it now. So many to choose from..." "You can't. Julia, Julia and I we...we will get you blood...in fact she's on her way back here from Windcliff to..." "Yes, I know. But I need fresh blood, Willie. Blood that comes directly from the veins..." Barnabus's mind reached out. "There is one who is already thinking of me. One who is susceptible to me because of his thoughts..." Collinwood stands at the stroke of midnight. The great grandfather clock struck 12 a moment too late...a light rain shed itself from the heavy burdened clouds...drops diving for the ocean, beyond Widow's Hill... "Midnight. A hush falls through the melancholy halls of Collinwood." Carolyn was asleep in her bed. Elizabeth fell asleep in a chair in her room, reading. David was finally asleep in his bed, restlessly turning but in his sleep. Something nagged at his subconscious, something he once knew but had been made to forget... "A solemn moon casts dark shadows over the placid stillness of the old mansion." The Old House. Large stone poles, illuminated by lightning bursts, followed by thunder clasps...and a white dressed ghostly woman...Josette dancing around the pillars...pillars which held up a huge overhang... "I, Barnabus lie in deep sleep upon my bed of purple velvet. Asleep but awake to your thoughts. Your feelings, your desires." Jeremy, next to Jesse, was stirring. He sat up. He could not sleep. He brushed the hair out of his lover's eyes, then out of his own. He thought about the Old House. About Barnabus. "I bet he is the Doctor..." Barnabus seemed to fill his mind. "Alone but cradled by the presence of your mind...I hear your call, I feel your yearning. I know that you want me. I know that you need me." Jeremy quickly dressed again. He put on the tight, washed out, slightly ripped, denim cuts offs and over his head put the long white T shirt, the bottom of which flowed. It hung down on him as he stood from the bed. "The oppressing weight of long lost time weighs heavily upon me. The deepening gloom that cover me, binds me in my sepulture, I hear your call, I feel your yearning. I must go to you. I struggle to free the invisible chains that bind me. I search in the embalmed darkness for a nebulous light that will lead me to you. I hear your call, I feel your yearning. I am with you!" I, Barnabus...Cobert and Grean "Make yourself scarce, Willie, we'll...I'll be having a visitor very soon..." The rain added to the water that hit the cliffside rocks beneath the Collinwood mansion, not far from the Old House...DARK SHADOWS looming ...Jeremy sat up as he heard the water hit the cliffs, unsure as to how. He went to one of the thin, rectangular stained glass windows and saw the rain tapering off. He moved to the desk and began to write a note, "Jesse, I'm very anxious about the Doctor and about this Barnabus. I know I should wait, wait for morning, for you. I just think if I go there and take a look around, I might find out something. Your love, Jeremy. PS, don't be scared without me..." He drew a happy face next to that. He put a hole in the note and used the hole to push the note on the bathroom door knob where Jesse was sure to find it. Jeremy looked around the room. He opened the door, "Jesse..." he whispered. "I know there're many ghosts in this house but you...you'll be safe..." he returned to his lover and kissed Jesse's forehead, smooth and he liked the taste...He kissed Jesse's left shoulder which faced up from the bed as the boy laid on his side. Jeremy thought about something. Something he hadn't done of late. He brushed his hand on Jesse's exposed left hand and let it go so he could kneel beside the bed. "God, dear God, please keep Jesse safe...have my old Fitzie guard him, that'll be good..." Jeremy stood up and smiled, proud of himself now, sure that God would look after Jesse. He found a flashlight in one of the drawers and checked it, then moved to the open door and went out and shut it. Jeremy prowled the house, hoping no one would spot him or stop him. The rain had stopped although the clouds kept coming. Jeremy exited through one of the large back doors, crossing a marble tile floor, leaving the house. He walked on stones, past cement show railings and flower pots of same. It all looked quite majestic to him but also he thought, cold and of little warmth of spirit. The thunder had subsided and so had the lightning. He crossed the large open area, descended a short stone series of steps, and walked along the side lawn, a huge tower looming above him. The gray clouds seemed as if they wanted to part but wouldn't. Jeremy walked on the wet grass and could feel some of it kick up on his bare legs. Not his favorite thing but he felt the exhilaration one feels after a storm or from being out in one during a lull. He smiled to himself, thinking the Doctor would have some scientific explanation for this. He'd have the most unromantic explanations for the most romantic things and yet, somehow, that fact in and of itself, made the Doctor and what he said...very romantic. "I'm coming, Doctor," Jeremy said as he left the open spaces of the Collinwood estate and marched into the woods. Once he stood in the woods, flashlight shining, he wasn't so sure of himself, however. It was oppressive and scary. "Nothing's gonna stop me from finding you, Doctor." He moved more warily now and the trees seemed to close in on him. He looked overhead and thought he saw a few bats flying their rounds. The tree arms nearly blocked out the gray smoke of the clouds and the darkness behind them. These, too, seemed to grow thicker as he moved on and on. The T shirt flowed behind him, the denim shorts open at the button, unbuttoned... He recognized the area as leading past Widow's Hill and as he moved on, he heard faint sounds. He thought he was imagining them but as he moved closer and closer to the dreaded hill, he knew he was not imagining them. They were clear as the heart pounding in his chest. He spied the opening in the trees and bushes and saw them. Three ghostly figures, veils over their faces so that the nose, ears, mouth of each could not be seen. And he could see the cliff side through their translucent bodies. They had their hands to their faces and were weeping. Jeremy moved closer to toward them, in an attempt to tell them not to cry, "Oh, please don't cry any longer, it's..." as he moved, he nearly bumped into a brunette woman. She wore a red dress that he was certain was not from 1976 but from a further period back in time. Probably the late 1700s. "Go back! Go Back! Go Back!" "Who!?" Jeremy jumped backward, "Who are you?" "Ruby. My name is Ruby," the woman said, under some duress. "Ruby Tate. Please, you must go back!" "No way. I have no intention of going back until I've found some things out." As thunder began to rise up again, Ruby Tate titled her head and said, rather, moaned, "You must go back, for you are in grave danger!" She tilted her head and Jeremy could see her neck had two fang marks on it. Blood came from them. Jeremy resisted the urge to run all the back to Collinwood but he pushed on, walking up to Ruby and when he tried to get around her, she moved in front of him. "Get out of my way!" "Don't go near the Old House!" She kept blocking him from continuing. He tried dodging her. Jeremy tried a few more times but finally, he swallowed, swept up all the bravery he could and to ran right at her. Ruby screamed as he passed right through her. Jeremy turned to look briefly but he kept running. Ruby dropped all pretense of creating fear and just stared at the boy's back as he plodded on through the woods toward the Old House. Jeremy shuddered and hugged himself a few times as the rain began again, light rain at first but it started small and built itself up to a frenzy. En route to the house and just as the storm began to brew up again, other ghosts tried to stop him also. The headless ghost was there once more, carrying his own head, putting it on and trying to delay him. He knew what it was up to so he just sidestepped it and ran. It had called him a fool. Jeremy told it, "Then I'm a fool for love because I'm going to find out answers for my Doctor..." He had run into a woman in a long purple dress. "I am Victoria Winters..." Her long brunette hair flowed as David's long T shirt flowed around Jeremy's butt and legs. Another woman, a dark haired redhead, her hair even longer, appeared next to her. "I am Victoria Winters..." A shorter woman, with shorter hair than both of them, brunette just as the first Vicki, appeared. "I am Victoria Winters..." "What is this TO TELL THE TRUTH?" Jeremy quipped. "Honestly, to tell you the truth, I don't care. I know you're all only trying to stop me from getting to the old house...I don't know why, maybe it's to protect me but I can't let you stop me..." The trio seemed to converge on him and as their hands touched his chest, he realized they seemed more solid than the others. He backed off. "Listen, what do you want?" "These two are from parallel worlds. In all three, we have had a hard time of it because of Barnabus Collins..." "I've known people who might say the same thing about the Doctor..." Jeremy shrugged, "Look, it's my choice, just leave me alone! Let me go to the Old House!" "He's used us up and forgotten about us," the tall redhead said. "I don't this Barnabus but I have to say, that this place ...it's a little strange and if things happen he can't control..." "Do you know there's not one photograph of any of us in our respective Collinwoods..." the main Victoria snapped. "That's because..." Jeremy remembered that David told him that there was not a single photograph of Victoria Winters left in Collinwood. Apparently, both Elizabeth Stoddard and Mrs. Johnson could not bare to have any inside the house. Perhaps their minds lingered on that one photo which had shown Vicky being hung in the past. Odd that, since from what David told him, that very photo lead Barnabus to save Vicky...by going back in time. Back in time. Barnabus can go back in time. He had to be the Doctor. It seemed impossible but having been a time traveler now, Jeremy knew that most things were impossible, especially when it came to time and what it could do and what one could do within it. "This is none of my business...I'm sorry but if you knew me at all or the Doctor at all, you'd just not even try to stop me..." He moved around them and when they separated, he dashed in the space between them. "Perhaps, you're Doctor will leave you to the past as our Barnabus has..." the main Vicky snapped. The shorter one: "Maybe he'll rescue you from one thing only to let another have at you." He ploughed on, past all three Vickis, each one being more sarcastic than the other. A ghostly portly man who called himself Sam Evans, and Maggie's father, warned him, "Don't involve yourself with Barnabus Collins, it will lead to nothing but misery." "I'm sorry. I---I've got to!" Jeremy covered his ears as best he could while holding the flashlight, which shone right through Sam, and moved on. Others seemed to be victims of werewolf and vampire attacks, some seemed to have become vampires themselves, huge holes in their chests where their hearts used to be; others were past Collins family members: Tad, Joshua, Flora, a very happy flirt named Pansy Faye...who did a dance for him...trying to delay him in a most fun manner...and she used her scarf to try to wrap him up in. There was also a psychic woman, who unlike most others, wore 1968 type clothing and a scarf around her head almost like a gypsy. Her neck was broken and she seemed to be holding up her hands to stop him. Like all the others, she had little power to stop him if he wanted to keep moving and keep moving he did. Running, he didn't even realize he had lost both sandals, flip flops. His feet were somewhat bruised. Jeremy's favorite had to be a genuine gypsy woman who wore long ear rings, and a full gypsy outfit, skirt and all. Dangling jewelry as part of her ensemble. "You no gotta go in der..." she had said to him. "Yes, I do." "I, Magda Racosi forbid it." "Yes, but like the others, you don't have any power to stop me do you?" She raised her hand up, "I gotta the power..." she said and Jeremy almost laughed. And as he tried to walk through her, like the others, he found he could not. "I DO got-ahh, the power..." Jeremy felt he could not move. "You...you can't stop me..." "I have. I am," she laughed. "It be for your own, ahh, good, young man..." "Please, you have to let me in. I'm looking for a friend of mine..." Magda put her arm down and released Jeremy from her influence. "This must be some, ahh, great friend, if you plan to brave these woods and that Old House for him, ahh?" "Truth is..." Jeremy swallowed, "He's not just a friend. He...he's my lover..." Magda laughed. Loudly. "Now I understand. Many have entered that house on account of love and the great, big house there too, you see. And never come out for it. And if some have, they never come out for it in love...still. You understand?" "No." Magda laughed again. "I tell you what. I let you go, no." "Yes." "I let you go, yes. But once in there, that house of dark shadows, you on your own, ahh?" She shook her head up and left it there in the air, aware, knowing. Realizing she was making the wrong decision for him. "Thanks, Magda!" Jeremy's face brightened and he moved to hug her and fell through her onto his face. He stood up as she laughed and vanished, and laughed some more even though her ghost was gone. He wiped off some leaves that clung to his t shirt. He could see the Old House looming up ahead, the large oak tree branches and the surrounding bushes, which formerly, seemed to keep it hidden from view, seemingly now parting for him. Lightning blasts illuminated the scary old house, huge pillars, behind which anything could hide in waiting and pounce on him as he approached. Before hitting the main staircase, which he was sure he didn't want to do anyway, he slowly made his way past the old swing that moved to and fro on the greatest of trees. It moved but he, at first, saw no one on it. As the lightning began again, in the bursts of light or in between them, he wasn't sure which, he could make out the figure of a little girl in the swing, she adorned in a long nightgown. He squinted. A very little girl. The girl seemed to be singing. Yes, she was. "London Bridge is falling down. Falling Down. Falling Down. London Bridge...take the key and lock HIM up, my fair gay, carefree boy." "What was that?" Jeremy said out loud and wanted to move closer to her...however, the danger of lightning was ever present and the lightning itself reminded him of it when it struck a smaller tree near him. He ran, and finally approached the house from the huge left side wall, he hid under the awning of a large window. He looked inside. He saw a small-ish timid looking man, calling someone on a telephone. "Julia, you...you've gotta come right away." On the other end, Julia said, "I'll have to contact Carolyn...tell her to get in touch with Adam..." "Now?" "No. No, she'll suspect something if I call her now," Julia said, "She knows that when Adam is sick, Barnabus is sick. Or used to be. She knows enough to help us. But right now, I'm having some trouble here, getting permission for the blood." "Oh no, that means..." "Not to worry, Willie, that won't stop me." She paused and then added, "...but I'll be there as soon as possible. And Willie...Willie, are you sure you're all right?" "Yes, Julia, just hurry back..." Willie said and then he hung up. At Windcliff, Julia looked at the phone in her hand, hung it up, and smiled at a passing nurse, who had glanced at her, a look of suspicion on the nurse's face. Julia shrugged. It was not long before she moved to the hospital blood bank door. It would be easy to just bluff her way to the people on duty. They knew she worked with home bound individuals before and some of them required blood transfusions. At the Old House, rain began to come down heavier. Jeremy could no longer see inside as clearly. Willie seemed to have hung up the phone and stared at something. Jeremy had ducked to avoid him but when he looked back, Willie had gone. Jeremy looked up at the rain filled sky and hoped it would end its deluge. Yes, Jeremy turned to look up at the sky and when he turned back, Barnabus Collin's face filled the window, smiling, an almost evil smile....Jeremy screamed and fell back, into the bushes. He looked up and there was a man standing over him, outside, just over his face. Thick boots on. Impassive face, yet somehow the forehead of Willie sported creases that looked like worry. "You shouldn't have been out here, young man...now..." At the doors to the Old House, a caped figure called out, "Get him inside, Willie, he...he will catch his death out there...and we wouldn't want that." Jeremy immediately jumped up but Willie had grabbed his right arm. "I..." "You can't leave in this rain storm..." "You can't leave in this rain storm," Willie said, almost mimicking Barnabus's voice. "I'm..." Jeremy said as he met Barnabus at the front doors, "I'm a friend of David's." "Come, inside," Barnabus said, "No spider, no fly..." Jeremy nervously laughed. The room they stepped into, despite the modern day phone, could have come out of the 1700s. Over the fireplace hung a portrait of a beautiful woman. "Josette Collins," Barnabus smiled and then lost his smile. "One of the ...well, unfortunate brides who lived here..." his voice was cold but it grew as warm as Jeremy's soaked body as he spoke of Josette further, "...for a time...had things been different for her, she might as well still lived here...had the Old House, what we Collineses call it...had it been accommodating for her." Barnabus smiled, "But you're soaked to the bone...your clothes, take them off." "Huh?" Both Willie and Jeremy asked. Barnabus began by taking hold of the wet bottom of the T shirt from behind Jeremy and lifting it. The wet cloth clung to the boy's bare skin. Willie averted his eyes after he caught a glimpse of the wet t shirt front clinging to and showing every inch of Jeremy's muscular stomach. The shirt dipped in at the navel. >From behind, Barnabus could see large patches of muscles...and veins...and more muscles in the back of the boy...Jeremy raised his hands over his head and his arms, too. Barnabus took the T shirt off and rounding on Willie, handed the wet mess to his servant. Willie stared. "Willie, here, will find you a room where you can let your clothing dry...I think the spare one at the top..." "Josette's room, Barnabus, no!" Jeremy blinked, then looked from one man to the other. "If it's an inconvenience..." "Not at all. Tell me, though, why...have you come here so late this night?" "I had to...I had..." Jeremy blinked. "Gosh, I guess I...I... for...oh, I know. I've been meaning to meet you. Talk to you. David's always on about how great you are...and...have you had other visitors here recently?" "There's only you. And might I say," Barnabus put his cape around Jeremy and let his hands stay on both shoulders of the strong boy. "Each room has a fireplace. Willie shall light it, while you take a bath....if you like. This storm will rage on for hours..." Barnabus looked at the Sitting Room's windows as the lightning raged and the thunder beat against them. He smiled behind Jeremy. Even over his cape, he could see the boy's strong neck muscles. He had looked down to the succulent hip but his eyes traced the veins from hip to lower...lower...lower...there, the veins rose up on the boy's flat but well developed lowest of low to the lower belly, past one of his favorite places to bite men...the navel...and up to the chest...he settled on his favorite place...the neck. Willie could see two things happening. Barnabus began to drool, opening his mouth, baring fangs AND Jeremy began to unzip his denim shorts. A large bit of boy flesh already was on display. He grabbed Jeremy's two wrists, using the wet T shirt to brush against the boy's dick area as it hung from his own left hand, "Well, come on then, come on, if we're...we is going to get started..." He lead the boy up the great marble staircase, Barnabus glaring knives at him. Willie didn't make eye contact and from years of knowing Barnabus he knew this was the best method of avoidance. He literally almost had to drag the boy up the steps, now bare feet dragging on the steps. Jeremy seemed to be almost asleep, in some sort of semi trance. "I am tired..." Barnabus watched the pair vanish at the top of the staircase--- and he began to lick his lips. Willie opened a door and literally dragged Jeremy inside. Inside, Jeremy saw the large portrait of Josette over a mantle piece and a fireplace. "Wow. She must have been very loved." Willie paused for a moment in trying to light the fireplace. "Yes, yes, she was. I mean I believe she was..." Jeremy sat on the large bed, which was neatly made. "I..." he held his head, "I'm not sure I can take a bath. I guess I'm more tuckered out than I thought." A flash of lightning hit, followed by thunder, then the lights flickered and went out. Jeremy looked at Willie, "Do they do that often?" "They should come on...but with the power down, it...it's best you just stay in this room, kay?" "Sure, thing," Jeremy smiled and laid back on the bed, his flat abs spread out to the ceiling. His muscled chest looked like two solid mountains of manliness, tinged with two hard, cold rock solid nipples, pointed from the cold storm and the water....his body had some goose bumps on it and it looked heavenly... Willie coughed and held the wet T shirt, "I'll just see about some other clothes for you..." "I'm alright," Jeremy said, "Oh, the wet shorts, on the bed!" He jumped off the bed, stripped them off carefully, and handed them to Willie, who averted his eyes. "I'll set some candles out on the dresser..." Willie said after lighting the fireplace, trying not to look at Jeremy. "Thanks..." Willie nodded without looking at the hunk and he left the room as fast as he could. Naked, Jeremy looked about the room and found a music box on the mantle below a portrait of Josette. When he opened it, the song Josette always listened to began to play. A small ballerina danced under the open lid. Jeremy's eyes lit up, "How romantic..." Below, Barnabus looked up, hearing Josette's music playing. He smiled... Willie came to him and almost threw the clothing at him but stopped himself short of doing so. "I know, I know. I know what you're doin', Barnabus. And I don't like it one bit..." "Willie...you can't do anything about it, now, can you?" Willie came around Barnabus's back, "I don't understand, Barnabus. You've been under the curse before and were...well, were..." Barnabus spun around to face, "Were what? Say it, Willie!" "You weren't as evil as you were...you know, the first time. The time before Sarah..." "Sarah!" Barnabus gasped, "I ..." He faltered. He turned around, eyes shut in pain. The thought of Sarah...how she loved him and he her. The thought of what he was doing and the things, the evil, vampiric things his mind was planning...planning for the boy upstairs... "No..." he said meekly. "You're a good man, Barnabus, always have been," Willie faced him again. "Even when..." Barnabus composed himself and stood up straight again, "Even when I bit you, made you my slave, beat you, tried to make you the pawn, the pasty for so many things...and when I threatened, nay almost killed Maggie, David, Victoria Winters, Carolyn, and so, so many others. Even in a way, it was I, yes I who caused..." he spit out air as a fly landed on his nose. "I who caused Roger's death..." "That's...over and over and done with, Barnabus. But now, now, I gotta know what you're gonna do...the kid..." "Don't worry, Willie," Barnabus smiled and put his hand on Willie's shoulder, "Even though, this time it feels different...much different as though...I'm myself and you're right, I am basically a good man..." Willie's eyes remained suspicious, "I'll be right back. I'm...I'm gonna go get some candles..." Barnabus's eyes followed his old friend as he moved to the basement steps. Barnabus went to the lock on the door and closed the latch...he folded both hands and put them to his chin...he smiled, revealing sharp vampire fangs...his eyes gleaming... In Collinwood, Jesse stirred in the bed. "Doctor, no. Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow, not the other way around...Borusa said so..." Jesse stirred. He felt something. He felt something in the room. He put his face beneath the sheets again. He hoped, like some of the other phantoms of Collinwood, it would just dissipate without any trouble. Something heavy seemed to be at his feet, his ankles. From under the sheet, he could see a huge shadow, a smaller one moving behind it. The thing sat down. Jesse gulped and peered out the sheet top. He put his back down on the bed and stared. Suddenly as the lightning filled the room via the three or more stained glass windows, he saw the image. Staring back at him was a large dark colored, German Shepard canine. It sat at the foot of the bed, seemingly rising up, headfirst to leap on it. The image he was before, the large one was the dog, the smaller was its tail waving back and forth. The dog stared and watched. Jesse's eyes widened. The sheet was wrapped under his arms and he laid there staring...the dog inadvertently opened its mouth and he could see large canine fangs and other teeth...Lightning behind illuminated the silhouette of the dog... the large patches of hair were black and brown at different parts of its body. It would be beautiful, if Jesse didn't feel chills all over his spine and spreading out to the rest of his body... Jeremy took a bath after all. When finished, he warmed himself by the fire Willie had started in the fireplace. He rubbed his hands together. He heard a strange howling in the woods. Jeremy went to the window, a large squared off one. He could not see any animal and he wondered what type of animal would make a noise like that. It had three howls and then stopped...he thought he saw a large bat outside his window...he moved back, somewhat unaffected by either wolf or bat... Willie struggled to get out of the basement cellar door. "Barnabus, let me out! You can't do this!" Jeremy laid down in the bed, put the sheets over himself, and quickly fell asleep. A thick fog of smoke came from under the door to his room. If anyone had seen it, they'd have thought the house were on fire. That alone would be a horrid enough thing, however what it really was...was even worse than any fire. When the fog finished rolling in from under the door, it rose up and formed a figure...in the dark over the bed, in front of the light from the fireplace and the head of Barnabus Collins illuminated by bursts of lightning. The body followed, assisted by brief bouts of thunder... Barnabus stared the prone boy, who rested his head sideways on the fluffy pillow. Jeremy looked angelic. His medium length hair curled in the rain and fell to his ears...his breath...his steady rhythm of life, in and out, in and out... such life, Barnabus thought. Such grace. Such virility. He could feel the blood pumping in the youth's veins. He could no longer control himself. He raised his hands and Jeremy turned so that his neck was an open target... Barnabus opened his mouth wide and his main fangs bared, descended to the boy's throat...the tip of each main fang already started to draw blood on the handsome, smooth and clear neck... In Collinwood, Jesse stared at the dog and thought in the eyes, he could see the vampire starting to bite the neck of Jeremy... DOCTOR WHO STING MUSIC into the long, alternate Dark Shadows theme song... TBC Doctor Who, Dark Shadows, Hart to Hart and, dang, all other characters are copyright their original creators and owners...on infringement is meant...