Dark Shadows - A New Beginning

Chapter One

My name is Stanley Polinsky. The year is 1993.

I set out on the road to find my place in the world. For I have never had a place in it. Not really.

Until now, I've been a directionless orphan without a place to call home. Hence, my journey began. A journey that I hoped would open the doors of life to me and lead me home.

Wherever home turns out to be...

...and how did my journey start? It started behind the wheel of a Ford truck that I hotwired at a Flying J.

I was 17 and on the run. Why? Because I was tired of living as a state ward, jumping between foster homes that never truly made me feel welcome.

Little did I know that my journey was about to take me to a strange and dark place. To the edge of the sea high atop Widows Hill. A house called Collinwood.

A world I have never known, with people I have never met. People who this morning are still only shadows in my mind, but they will soon fill the days and nights of my tommorows...

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Stanley saw a sign up ahead. He slowed the truck down, so he'd be able to read it. The sign told him the name of the town he was coming up to.

Rockport, Maine

Stanley thought that he had now come a good distance from Charlotte.

He'd lucked out. The truck had been near full on gas when he'd stolen it. In total, he'd only stopped three times.

Once had been to change the plates at some shady auto joint close to the Charlotte projects. The other two stops had been to refuel.

Both times, he'd made sure to stop at gas stations in tiny towns that were off the beaten path. There was always the chance that the truck might be recognized, after all.

Now that Stanley was in Maine, he would have to make a choice soon. Keep going and head for Canada with no kind of documentation, or stop and attempt to begin a new life in one of these Maine coastal towns.

He knew that the Canadian border choice was hardly wise, no matter how much he might like to think he could get away with simply driving over the border. He was world wise enough to know better.

However, Stanley soon found that his choice of destination was being chosen for him, as though by fate.

It started with a sudden jerk of the truck and a strange exhaust sound. At first, pushing down on the gas pedal seemed to help. The car picked up again - for about 20 seconds...

Then the truck gave another wild jerk, and Stanley knew he'd have to stop. He saw a beach parking area just up ahead and decided that was as good a place as any to dump the truck.

He'd just managed to get parked when the engine made a feeble sound and with a final jerk the truck died. 

He stepped out of the driver's side and felt the cool breeze of mid-morning blow pleasantly across his face.

The air smelled so clean and fresh. Nothing at all like Charlotte...

He'd have time to enjoy the beach breezes later. Now he needed to find a place for his feet to land. To be specific, he needed a job and a place to sleep.

As fate would have it, the first establishment he came to just after the beach was an auto repair shop. The lone mechanic to be found in the place was a rather tall man with short curly hair, and a scarred face.