David sauntered into the drawing room carrying a large, much used crystal ball in his arms. His sullen expression, as he politely accepted Roger's thanks for helping to save him from Carolyn's attack, left little doubt in Mrs. Johnson's mind that he was disappointed with the outcome of the attack.

However, the boy appeared to be quite interested in his cousin Barnabas' uncharacteristic display of emotion, and sat down next to him for closer observation. "Cousin Barnabas, why are you sad?" Barnabas appeared not to have heard him, and David pressed on. "Are you sad because of the red haired lady?"

Barnabas' head raised slowly and his dark, mournful eyes widened as he turned to David. "How do you know she has red hair?" Then he frowned with a menace that had struck fear into many grown men who would try to trick him. "Did you listen through an extension to my telephone conversation with Dr. Woodard?"

"No, I saw her in the crystal ball." David shrugged with such straight forward innocence that Barnabas saw how it could be difficult for outsiders to believe that the well-mannered boy was highly accomplished at looking straight into the eyes of an adult while lying with the greatest sincerity.

"Really, David!" Roger began admonishing the boy with sarcasm dripping from his words.

"It's true, I swear." His round-eyed, guileless expression turned into a glower. "Why doesn't anyone ever believe me?"

"David, what did you see in the crystal?" Barnabas held the boy in his steady gaze, willing to listen to his tale, hoping that David's developing psychic gift hadn't disappeared along with the rest of reality as he had known it before sunset changed his life.

"I saw 'her'. The lady with red hair." David shrugged again as if second sight was something everyone had. When Barnabas pressed him for details of the vision, David said, "She was tied up and water was coming up over her, but she didn't scream, and she didn't open her eyes, then the air bubbles just stopped, and she just sort of -- floated -- and that was all."

"Really Barnabas, you shouldn't encourage the boy in this manner, it will only provoke him to concoct more fantasies. Tied up indeed!"

"I'm not making up fantasies, father, I saw her!" David said with a firm set of his jaw, a Collins family trait that was evident in both 'lines'. "She had curly red har, and she was maybe the same age as Carolyn --" David hesitated, having spoken the name of the cousin he had genuinely loved before she became a scary blood sucker. "I couldn't see what color her eyes were though, because they were closed."

"Do you think you could see her again if you tried, David?" asked Barnabas with an anxious glimmer of hope.

"Maaaybeee." David drew out the word slowly, milking the suspense of the moment for all it was worth before breaking into a self-satisfied smile and telling Barnabas, "I'm sure I can." He sat cross-legged in the floor, staring at eye level into the crystal where he had placed it on the table.

"Could you try to see her before the water -- try to see where she is?"

"Sure." David turned the ball this way and that, peering into it from the sides and top, as if trying to entertain an audience, but then the boy grew still and took his hands away from the ball, as he began to stare quietly into the depths of the smooth crystal, where dark impressionist shapes created by refracted light, changed into distinct, realistic images that only he could see.

"Can you see her, David? Can you see Julia? Tell me."

"Yes, she's there. She's someplace with some men. They're all wearing white coats over their clothes. Oh -- it's a hospital, they're going in to see someone that's strapped down in a bed and trying to get loose. There's an older doctor with them, he's telling them about the man in the bed." David frowned. "I can hear him say it, I just can't understand what he's saying. He told the lady that the man in the bed was her patient, and the rest of them laughed like they were glad they didn't get him. She's not laughing though. She's checking the straps holding him down, and -- hey, the man in the bed jerked one of his arms out of a strap and grabbed her!"

Barnabas started and leaned close to the crystal ball. "What is happening?"

"He's -- well, he's doing things he shouldn't, and she's fighting him, trying to get away, but he's awfully strong." David paused. "Now the older doctor is helping her, but he's laughing. Boy is she mad!" A grin spread across David's face from ear to ear. "She just hauled off and slapped the doctor across the face, and she's giving him a big piece of her mind."

The sound of the metal door knocker striking the massive front door broke David's concentration, and moments later Dr. Dave Woodard was escorted into the drawing room.

"You shouldn't have put yourself at risk," said Roger as Dave Woodard slipped a large white cross into his pocket. "I'd never forgive myself if you were attacked while on this mission of mercy."

"Actually, my trip has two purposes, I wanted the chance to speak to Barnabas Collins and finish our conversation."

Barnabas rose to face the man he once murdered during a fit of insane anger, and all he could feel now was remorse. "Dr. Woodard -- what more could you possibly add, unless to say that you were mistaken, and Julia is alive."

"Well, no Mr. Collins, you so adamantly insisted she is still living, that I felt you needed to see proof to the contrary." Dave Woodard took a newspaper clipping from his jacket pocket and spread it out for Barnabas to see. "You see, Julia Hoffman was a friend of mine, and I kept the report of her death. I thought you might care to read it yourself."

The yellowed newpaper article was dated January 2, 1952, and the bold headline proclaimed, "Doctor Drowns In Submerged Car" Barnabas frantically scanned the opening paragraph for hope that the article was about someone other than his Julia, but the account only brought a choking lump to his throat as news type swam before his tearing eyes.

'Icy road conditions have been credited with Saturday night's automobile accident that resulted in the drowning death of a young resident doctor affiliated with Wyndciffe Sanitarium. According to the investigating Trooper's report, Dr. Julia Grayson Hoffman, 25, of Philadelphia, Penn. lost control of the 1950 Mercedes sedan she was driving southbound on Lookout Road. The vehicle skidded through a guard rail at Observation Point before plummeting 32 feet into Crystal Lake where it sank below the surface. The investigator credits a protruding rock ledge with snagging the rear axle and keeping the trunk of the car projecting out of the water where it was spotted by passing motorists on New Year's Day.'

Barnabas stared at the accompanying five column picture which was taken by a sensationalizing freelance photographer who had been able to capture a good shot of the dead woman's profile through the driver's window, as the dripping car was winched out of the water. It was Julia's unmistakable profile.

Barnabas didn't know when he had stopped breathing, and he didn't care, but his human body invountarily forced air into his human lungs without permission, forcing life to continue when he only wanted it to end. He sat very still with his head bowed, as Dr. Woodard said, "You see, it can't be the same Julia Hoffman."

to be continued

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