Those who had recently moved to Collinsport were not completely aware of what the town used to be like. It was an artist colony and a fishing port on Frenchman's Bay forty miles from Bangor between Winter Harbor and Bar Harbor. The fishermen from the region sailed in large fishing boats the size of football fields while the tourists and natives frequented the open verandas and eateries of the seaside shops and markets. The days of dogs howling at night were long forgotten. Few of the local law enforcement officers knew of the strange deaths that once haunted the prospering town. In the center of town, Eagle Hill Cemetery had fallen under the County Preservation Society and was being kept cleaned and maintained with donations from the local Collins family. The old courthouse which once whispered of witchcraft trials and accusations of evil spells was now the County Historical Society full of artifacts and relics from the past, but whenever Carolyn Stoddard Loomis drove past it, she still unconditionally felt the nape of her neck for injuries she once endured there. That was over twenty years ago and things had changed, she was married to a man who loved her and whom she loved in returned.

If anyone had ever told her that she would have married William Hollingshead Loomis, she would have denied it. He had once attacked not just her, but Maggie Evans as well. Thank the gods for a man like Barnabas Collins who saw something good in the former felon and directed it to something good. Willie Loomis had risked his life to save Carolyn from Buzz Hackett at a time when she was still grieving the loss of her first husband. It was at that moment that Carolyn realized she could not dwell on the past; she needed a person in her life just as Willie did. As she departed from the Collinsport Civic Center built on the site of the former Todd Antique Store, she recognized a certain young adult on the sidewalk before Coleman's Pharmacy and turned her car around in the parking lot of the Historical Society. Slowly re-entering traffic, she slowed to a crawl and rolled forward along the parked cars at the curb to her right along the street.

"JR…" She called to her firstborn son. "I'm heading home, do you want a ride?"

"I'm meeting William and the guys at the Blue Whale." He stopped and leaned over her car window. "He'll drive me home." He eyed his mother's leather pocketbook by her. "Can I have some money?'

The Collinwood matriarch rolled her eyes and lightly groaned. Forty years ago when she was his age, she had just charged everything to her mother's account, but both her son and daughter loved the use of cash. She did not trust them anymore with credit cards ever since Lizzie came home with a truckload of clothes purchased from that new strip mall on the interstate to Bangor.

"I seem to remember doing this just the other day." She told herself out loud. "What do you do with your allowance?"

"Stuff."

"Stuff…" Carolyn repeated him as she gave him a fifty-dollar bill. "You know, some high school seniors get jobs…"

"There's no where to work around here." JR claimed.

"No where to…" A car honked behind Carolyn and she looked into her rear view mirror to a mini-van behind her. "We'll talk about this at home." She sighed and took her foot off the brake, rolling forward to turn onto Curtis Road and drive around the park to get toward Collins Road toward the estate. The young heir mused a bit and checked out the street. Why should he get a job? His family was one of the top wealthiest New England families on the East Coast. He was fifteen when he met his first Kennedy, eight years old when he first dabbled in the stock market and was schooled by his Aunt Maggie acting as Governess for the first twelve years of his life. He had it made! Why would he ruin it with a job?

Dashing down the street past several sidewalk shops and markets, he crossed the tree-lined street and made his way to the other side to reach the docks. Taking a moment to notice and appreciate the shape of two younger ladies coming out of Amantea's Dress Shop, he whirled round to spin down an alleyway and down descending stairs looking down over the bay. The piers below were layered like steps for an immense giant, each level with its own restaurants, shops and markets. If one wanted the best seafood in town, this was the place to come. Most of these eateries got their fresh fish directly from the fishing trawlers based on the other side of Dead Man's Cove. For home cooking, most Collinsport natives either ate in the diner off the Collinsport Inn or Lali's Kitchen on the edge of town down near the new library and high school, but for seafood or just basic hanging out, the Blue Whale Bar and Grill had a long prosperous history going back to 1850 and a retinue of several owners. Reached by rope-lined boardwalks and restored wood stairways, the locale was also a hub of community activity ranging from covert meetings between businessmen and fishermen and even an odd bar fight when tension rose to fisticuffs. JR's father used to frequent this place, and his Uncle Quentin called it a second home for meeting ladies before getting tamed by matrimony. Their progeny now called it a hideout from Collinwood. There was many a night Quentin and Willie came looking for their sons if but to catch them fraternizing with young ladies in the corner booth. Grinning at another young lady, JR pulled on the door and made his entrance into the busy bar and grill. It was adorned in antique fishing nets, nautical gear, shells and preserved starfish and creatures around tables and chairs and one row of booths along the far wall. The jukebox had not been updated since 1975. The scent of beer and ribs met his senses first and then he caught the image of his cousins at a center table near the back hall to the restrooms.

"Bad news, he found us." Jamison Collins looked to William Collins and took another bite of his hamburger. William was eating his usual crab dinner with a side of cole slaw. He had it so many times that the owner called it William's Special. Sucking the meet out of another crab leg, William mused on a thought and looked to the woman eyeing him from the end booth. She was a bit mature for him; blonde and attractive like a television actress in the real world, but she had been watching him since he had arrived with Jamison. He wasn't sure what to make of it. It wasn't like he actually considered himself attractive enough to garner the attention of older women when the girls he went to college with barely gave him the time of day.

"I was thinking…" JR borrowed a chair from another table and joined his cousins. "You guys recall that really old house on the hill just before reaching Millbridge…" He stole one of Jamison's French fries and dipped it in ketchup before popping it into his mouth. "Let's head up there and stay the night…" He smirked liking these plans. "Junior Goodlett claimed he saw a body in there. Let's go check it out."

"Junior Goodlett also said there was a body off Widow's Hill." William swirled some of his crabmeat in butter before pulling it out with his fork and eating it. "And that was just a mannequin. Besides, I'm driving back to college on Monday." He remained as logical and pragmatic as ever.

"And I've football camp." Jamison swatted JR than let him steal another of his French fries. "Don't you still have that mannequin dressed like Cyndi Lauper in your room?"

"She's dressed like Madonna and you know it!" JR snapped back. "Come on guys, we haven't hung out since we were kids! Every time you freaking guys come home, you come here, get your usual burger and crab, attend another freaking family dinner and then leave me again. I want out of this freaking little town!"

"We got our own lives, dude…" Jamison swatted JR's hand from his fries. "Look, just because you're still stuck in high school with Sara, Lizzie and Amanda doesn't mean we have to revolve our lives around you."

"Yeah, besides," William used his napkin to clean his hands before finishing off his last crab leg. "Uncle David says I can start following him on cases. He's traveling out west to check out the Overlook Hotel this summer and you know I want to check that place out." He referred to the Collinsport Ghost Society his Uncle David had founded in the former Trask Mortuary location. Owning two local restaurants and starting a local computer provider, the former Collins menace had matured into a top local businessman, leaving custodianship of the estate known as Collinwood to his cousin Carolyn and focusing into his own paranormal research agency for examining haunted activity in the area. Most of the family had predicted it was going to happen since the days he once claimed he saw coffins in the basement of the old house.

"You guys are killing me." JR distracted Jamison to the bar area and then stole a French fry. William cracked his last crab leg and had that feeling again. The blonde woman had yet to stop looking him over. He acknowledged her with a slight smile and turned round again a bit spooked by her attention. He sipped his soda, started poking at his crabmeat and found his attention drifting to other realms and topics.

"Do you guys ever have strange dreams?" He changed the subject. JR and Jamison were struck silent by the intimate question for a moment and looked at each other. This was not unusual. William was a thinker, JR was a goof and Jamison was a thrill-seeker. It had been this way since they were kids.

"I dream I'm James Bond surrounded by hot babes chasing me across the country." JR confessed. Their personalities even sometimes intertwined.

"I dream of Victoria Principal…" Jamison beamed dreamily like his father. "In a very tiny bikini…"

"How tiny?" JR sat up straight at the table.

"Last couple of weeks," William placed his crabmeat in butter and swirled it around with his fork after his last bite of slaw. "I've had these dreams that I was a kid again and surrounded by all these other kids. We live in this huge castle lit by candlelight with this woman. I think they're supposed to be my brothers and sisters and the lady's my mom. It's so vivid…. I wonder if they're like memories of a past life or something."

"How hot is your mom in these dreams?" JR asked. The look from Jamison and William made him realize he had said something stupid.

"You want to know what she looks like…" William ate his last amount of crabmeat and slid aside his plate of the discarded lobster shells. "She's sitting right over there!" He turned round to the woman who had been watching him, but she had vanished from the bar and grill without being seen!