Dark Shadows - A New Beginning

Chapter Eleven

Character Portrait included: Lucifera

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Lucifera had the things in her purse that she needed to contact the motherhouse. Within mere minutes would be the time to attempt contact - when the last light of the sun gave way to night.

'It would be beyond explaining if someone were to catch me and observe all that I was doing' - Lucifera thought. 'The woods would be my safest bet...'

Determining that the woods would indeed be safest, Lucifera headed off in the direction she'd go if she were headed for the Old House. About halfway, she turned off to her left and walked a considerable distance. 

Once she'd decided that she was far enough off any beaten path, she took out a large hunk of orange chalk and began to draw a circle. 

It took her about five minutes to get everything that needed doing done. She drew a pentagram in the circle and placed candles at each point of the star. 

Having lighted the candles, she stepped into the center of the circle and raised her arms, as though reaching for the sky.

"Oh, thou evil spirits that keep we sisters," Lucifera began in an authoritative tone, "Let my words be carried to another of my order - to whichever elder stands now within the great circle..."

A loud peal of thunder clapped, and a dense fog began to blanket the ground. The fog was blown by a wind, which kicked it up into a cloud. 

Within the cloud appeared the vague, shadowy shape of one of the elders. Lucifera recognized him as Wrex, one of the more stern and disagreeable elders. 

"Lucifera," he said in acknowledgement. "What have you to report?"

"Nothing to report, my lord," she answered in a reverent tone. "I seek an answer to a very perplexing and troubling question."

"Speak your question," Wrex prompted her. 

"Last night, I used a spell to uncover the secret of one whom I believe to be the enemy I seek. I made him guide me in his sleep. He keeps a coffin in a secret room in his house. In the coffin lies a vampire who does not stir. Not even at night - though his corpse be perfectly preserved. When the one I believe to be my enemy led me, he fainted at almost the exact moment when the vampire opened his eyes. However, the vampire closed his eyes again and became seemingly dead. Just as before."

Wrex was silent for several moments. Lucifera could see that she had brought the elder a puzzle. 

"I know not what it means," Wrex said finally. "...but I invite you to think, Lucifera. If you believe that this person is your enemy, Barnabas Collins - think of what magic you command that can enable you to find out."

"I've thought about it, my lord. The only way forward that I can see is to somehow discover what Barnabas did when last he was here. I am told that he hasn't lived on the estate in several years. I do not see how I can find out. Any spell allowing me to go into my enemy's memory couldn't show me that long ago. You know what a struggle it is to navigate through the fog of memory to see even a year or two back. The only way I can see is to travel through time, and that is beyond my ability."

"I believe you have hit upon the right answer," Wrex told her. "For that, I can help point you toward a means of traveling through time. Did you never hear rumors in the order about our superior staying at one of the Collins houses in the 1960s? 

"Now that you mention it, I did hear a rumor. Something about Nicholas staying..."

"Do not say the superior's name," Wrex warned her. "Even we elders do not say his name lightly. For if he were to come, thinking himself called, he might punish us for our shortcomings."