The Drawing Room of Collinwood

*I am a huge fan of the 1960's Soap Opera, "Dark Shadows" and creator Dan Curtis. This story is a fan fiction of my affection for the Collins family and the drama that went on in their infamous drawing room.

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Collinwood is the primary home of the Collins family, located atop Widows' Hill in Collinsport, Maine. The house was built by Joshua Collins in the mid 1790s.

Collinwood stands high upon "Widows Hill" with the Atlantic Ocean crashing against the rocks below. Many a sailor's wife would wait and watch at the top of Widow's Hill for their husbands to return from the sea, but many never returned. The "Widows", in their despair, jumped to their deaths to the jagged rocks below.

Collinsport was founded in the late seventeenth century by Issac Collins, the earliest known member of the Collins family line, who established the town's industry as well as an expanding fishing fleet. This tiny village has just a few businesses such as the Collinsport Inn, The Collinsport Train Station, The Blue Whale (formerly known at The Eagle), the Collins Fishing Fleet and Cannery, the police station, the Evans cottage, and the Eagle Hill cemetery (where the Collins family mausoleum stands) and a library.

All the villagers that stop by the Collinsport Inn for a hot cup of coffee and a piece of pie, talk to Maggie Evans, whose father is a local artist. He has not sold many paintings in the past ten years, ever since he was blackmailed by Roger Collins to keep his mouth shut at the Burke Devlin trial. Burke Devlin was accused of driving drunk one night on a dark country road in Collinsport and killing a man crossing the road in a hit-and-run accident.

Roger Collins and his girlfriend , Laura, were also in the car. At this time, however, Laura is also seeing Burke Devlin. Meanwhile, Sam Evans is taking his dog for a walk and witnesses the accident. The car stops for a minute just enough time for Sam Evans to see that Roger Collins is driving drunk, not Burke Devlin. The car squeals away from this grisly scene into the darkness.

At the trial, Sam Evans testifies that he saw Burke Devlin at the wheel. Roger Collins and Laura also back this up. Burke Devlin is convicted of manslaughter and sent to prison for five years.

Ten years later, Burke Devlin has been out of prison for five years and he travels away from this haunting memory. To the ends of the earth to forget. He meets new people, rich people and he makes investments. He schemes, he wants revenge against the one person that put him in prison for five years. Roger Collins.

To do this, he must return to Collinsport, confront Roger Collins right in his own drawing room at Collinwood. A drawing room is a room where a host or hostess can entertain his or her guests. There would be no entertaining when Burke Devlin would knock on the front door. There would be confrontation and answers.

The Collinwood drawing room has a huge cracking fireplace, that is always burning to keep the room warm. The servant lives in the cottage house and he brings in the wood daily or when needed. There is a couch and several cushioned chairs. There is a hardy supply of brandy and sherry which Roger often partakes as well as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, Roger's sister.

Elizabeth is often at the desk in the drawing room because she is in charge of accounting for the Collins Fishing Fleet and Cannery. She has not left the grounds of Collinwood for over eighteen years. There is a mystery of her husband's disappearance eighteen years ago, the night her husband, Paul Stoddard, threatens to leave her and her daughter Carolyn. Elizabeth begs him to stay but Paul laughs in her face and vows to bankrupt the Collins Cannery. Enraged, Elizabeth grabs the fireplace iron and hits him over the head, knocking him out. She runs out of the drawing room just as her friend, Jason McGuire, enters the foyer, right on cue. He asks Elizabeth what is wrong and Elizabeth points to the door of the drawing room. She is incoherent, but Jason walks past her and goes inside, telling Elizabeth to wait in the foyer. He comes out and informs Elizabeth that Paul is dead. Jason concocts a plan that involved burying Paul in the basement and that would be that. The condition is that Elizabeth never, ever tells the police what had happened because she is complicit in the murder of Paul Stoddard.

Elizabeth keeps quiet for eighteen years, stuck in the drawing room of Collinwood, doing the books for the Cannery, and if she needs anything from the village, she called her friend, Bill Malloy. She keeps the key of the secret room in the basement around her neck, a constant reminder of her complicity.

The drawing room becomes a prison for Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, for two reasons.

First, she really believes she killed Paul Stoddard and secondly, she knows that Jason McGuire would come back to Collinwood someday and try to frame her for the murder. She could not let that happen. Silence is her constant companion. Silence and guilt. Jason McGuire did come back. He keeps up the lie that Paul is dead and that he buried him in a secret room in the basement.

Elizabeth sits in the drawing room with the key around her neck attached to a chain. She is completely oblivious to Jason's lies. Paul is alive and that Jason was his accomplice. Elizabeth did not know that she could have walked away from the drawing room and Collingwood and even walk into the police station to report the crime.

She did report the crime eighteen years later, but only when the blackmail came to a climax. Jason returns eighteen years later to Collinwood and turns the screws against Elizabeth. He forces her into a marriage and to include him in her will. Her complicity in silence would end in her death if she did nothing. She had to find out the truth. She agreed to the marriage and it took place right in the drawing room at Collinwood.

The ceremony went smoothly until Elizabeth was about to take her vows. She screamed out, "I can't. I just can't! I killed Paul Stoddard and this man, Jason McGuire was my accomplice!" The judge marrying them was witness to her confession.

Jason denied it of course. "Call the sheriff. Call the police! Paul Stoddard is buried in the basement.", Elizabeth declares.

"Paul and I cooked up this scheme together. He was a scoundrel and did not love you, Elizabeth. He knew you would never leave him or Collinwood, so he decided to fake his own death and try to steal money from the Cannery.", Jason explains.

"Where is Paul now? Have you heard from him?"

"Last I heard, he was sailing the Caribbean and had a dozen girlfriends that think he is rich.", Jason replied.

"How could he do this to me, to Carolyn?"

"You can't tie a man like Paul down for long. He is just no good."

The sheriff and the police arrived at Collinwood and headed for the basement. The flagstone was removed just where Jason said he buried Paul Stoddard.

A trunk was found. It was empty. Jason turns and escapes out into the night.

He hides out at the Old House on the Collins Estate. He is certain he is safe for now. The police scour the grounds searching for Jason.

The "Old House" door creeks open and down the hall is another door, to another basement.

"I can hide down there until the "heat" is off.", Jason schemes.

He finds a flashlight and turns it on. Jason pushes the door open and walks slowly down the stairs. To his shock and surprise, there is only one object in the basement. A coffin.

Jason's curiosity is piqued. "Are there family jewels in the coffin?"

Without a moment of hesitation, Jason opens the coffin with a triumphant smile on his lips. The smile turns into sheer terror as he gazes upon the body of Barnabas Collins, the cursed vampire, whose hands are now around Jason's throat, choking him to death.

Jason falls dead as a door nail to the floor.

Barnabas calls for Willie to take Jason's body to the Collin's Family Mausoleum secret room, behind Naomi' Collins headstone and bury him there. The whole town thinks Jason is miles away, they won't even think to look for him there.

"He was my friend, Barnabas. Jason and I go way back."

"Willie, do as I say or else.", Barnabas commands.

Willie and Barnabas disappear into the night, erasing Jason from the Collin's life forever.

There is a knock at the door at Collinwood.

Roger answers it and his eyes get really wide.

Entering the drawing room, is Burke Devlin and Sam Evans.

"What are you doing here?"

"Sam has something to tell you, Elizabeth. Something about Roger."

Elizabeth listens intently as Sam starts to speak.

"I was out walking my dog the night of the hit-and-run car accident that killed a man on that dark country road, ten years ago. The car was weaving all over the place and it was dark. A man was trying to cross the road and he was hit. I hurried to the scene and the car stopped for a second and in that split second, I saw who was driving the car. It was Roger, not Burke Devlin."

"Roger, is this true?", Elizabeth is shocked.

"Sam is a drunkard. Why would you believe anything he says?"

"Roger, you blackmailed me. You came to my cottage, pounding on my door, trying to bribe me and offer to buy all of my paintings for fifteen thousand dollars. My wife was very sick and I needed the money for her treatments in Boston. I was desperate for the money, so I kept quiet and agreed to testify for you at the trial. My testimony sent an innocent man to prison for five years. ", Sam confronted Roger.

Burke walked over to Roger and grabbed his shoulders, shoved him

against the wall and looked directly into his eyes.

"Roger, I want you to admit right now in front of your sister and Sam and myself that you were driving the car the night the man was hit and that you sent an innocent man to jail for five years."

"Never."

"Roger, is this true?"

Roger looks left and right and tries to run from the drawing room.

Burke and Sam block the door. There is nowhere for Roger to run.

"Yes, I was driving the car. I hit the man. I sent an innocent man to jail for five years!"

"Finally! Finally I hear the words I dreamed I would never hear from your lips, Roger. You killed the man. Now should you go to prison too? But people like you rot wherever you live.", Burke said.

Elizabeth walks over to the telephone and picks it up. She starts to dial the police, but Burke puts his hand over hers.

"Never mind. I wanted to see if you had the nerve to call. You sure do. I thought revenge would be sweet but it is as stale as the air in this drawing room. Time stands still here like death. The guilt that Roger and Sam must have felt all those years eating them up inside. Sam started drinking and stopped painting the very night he vowed to keep Roger's awful secret and Roger keeping a stiff upper lip trying to be a "Collins" and not to stain the family name with a scandal."

Burke Devlin and Sam Evans walked away from Collinwood that night into the fresh air, free from guilt and revenge in their hearts. Elizabeth free from blackmail from Jason McGuire and can finally divorce Paul for good.

Don't linger too long because the air in the drawing room at Collinwood breaks too many hearts and holds too many secrets that ruin lives.