Well, here's the first chapter to my story, I'm a little nervous as to how it will be accepted but it's worth a try. It's the story of Elizabeth and Roger's older brother that no one knew about. Hope you like... it's my first DARK SHADOWS fanfic. Please R&R. I unfortunately do not own Dark Shadows or anything affiliated with it :(

Chapter 1

Collinsport, Maine 1918

"Come on Maggie… just a little more. It's almost here." Margaret Collins was lying in a hospital bed giving birth to her first born child. Her husband James standing by her side the entire time. They had been trying to have a child for a few years and they had finally had success. The doctor was urging her to push just a little more. "Just one more push Maggie," she wasn't going to scream in writhing pain no matter what… not on the last one. She pushed with all of her strength and then allowed her muscles to relax, somehow knowing that her baby had arrived. "It's a healthy little boy." The doctor announced to Margaret and James.

"Barnabas… his name is Barnabas Collins the fifth." Maggie whispered to her husband, sweat dripping from her forehead. James beamed with pride at his son. The doctor passed him to the nurse to get him cleaned up and left the new parents alone in the room.

"He's a beautiful boy Maggie, almost as beautiful as his mother." James looked at his wife and looked as if he'd been sweating as much as she had. "I couldn't ask for a better son." He kissed his wife's forehead and sat down in the chair next to her, sighing with the fact that he finally had a child and even better a son. Maggie smiled at him, glad that the pain was finally over and that her son had finally arrived.

While the two of them were enjoying their time together, they had no idea the trouble that their son was in. Once the "nurse" had him somewhere private she removed the mask from her mouth and quickly caught her breath. Angelique looked down at Barnabas with absolute disgust in her eyes. He was a Collins after all and Angelique had sworn to make hell for the entire family ever since the baby's great-great-great uncle had rejected her. Barnabas looked up at her, the typical baby innocence clearly written on his face. Angelique hated that more than the fact that he was a Collins.

She had to deal this little twit before anyone else seen her. She looked down at the little babe and began to cast her spell. "Little babe asleep so well, you can thank your uncle for this spell. May his fate follow you all of your life, causing you pain, loss, and eternal strife." Angelique laughed wickedly as Barnabas began to cry as his transformation occurred. Little fangs started to grow where his canines would be eventually. She rocked him gently until he quieted down again and then walked Barnabas back into the room where his parents were. "Here you go," she said, the sweetness returned to her voice. Angelique handed him to Margaret, and smiled wickedly at Barnabas and James then walked out of the room.

"Margaret, did that nurse look at all familiar to you?" James whispered to his wife once Angelique was far enough out of earshot. She nodded her head slowly, just as worried as he was about this. He had known about the families curse since he was a boy, but he didn't want to believe that it had passed onto his son. He heard is son whimpering and lifted his lip slightly to see the little fangs in his mouth. He gasped slightly and covered his mouth, sitting down quickly. "Look at his teeth," he whispered to her once again, the quiver of fear in his voice.

"James, what's the matter?" Maggie looked at her sons teeth and seen the fangs where the canines would have eventually grown in. She was just as shocked as her husband was to see the fangs in her son's mouth. She also began to notice the other odd things about her son; his pale skin, the icy chill of his skin, and his pure black eyes… then the realization hit her. "James… I—I think our son is a vampire." Margaret was frightened beyond all belief at this sudden change in her newborn son. "Do—do you suppose this could be because of the family curse."

"I'm not sure but I hope not… God only knows what could have caused this. But that nurse did look an awful lot like…" he had to stop himself from saying the name, for fear that she would appear if he uttered the name that struck fear and hatred into the heart of any member of the Collins family. "Whether he's a vampire or not he's still our son and we'll love him just the same." James had to say that in front of his wife; the truth be known he didn't want this to be the son he was stuck with now. When they finally had their child he was hoping that he would have been just like any other boy in Collinsport, but now he had the "different" son.

The history between Angelique and the Collins family was one that stretched back for nearly one hundred and fifty years. Barnabas Collins the third, little Barnabas's great-great-great uncle had spurned Angelique when she was a servant for him for another woman. As a result Angelique placed a spell on the woman that Barnabas had fallen for and forced her to jump to her death off of the edge of Widow's Hill. Completely distraught, Barnabas sought to end his own life and jumped off the cliff as well, but death was not as merciful with him. Angelique cursed Barnabas to become a vampire, so that he could never rejoin his love. She turned the entire town against him and had him locked into an iron coffin for all eternity.

Coming back to the current times, Margaret and James were trying to deal with the fact that their son was a vampire, turns out that it was harder than they thought to try and imagine. Maggie's heart was breaking for her son at the moment. She was realizing how much he'd have to miss out on now in his life. He'd never be able to play outside with his friends, if he ever made any, he'd never be able to take a walk on the beach in the summer, worst of all and the one she felt the saddest about was that he might never get to have a true relationship with a nice young girl.

His father on the other hand was worried about a completely different set of things. One of the biggest factors being the fact that his son was now the different one in the city. Also some of the other things that were playing out in his head such as the fact that he and his little boy would never be able to play catch out in the yard, his son would probably never be able to date so he'd never get to have that special father-son talk with him about his first date, and so many other things that were going through his head at the moment. Both of them were clueless about what to do at the moment with their "night-walker" son. But they knew no matter what, they couldn't let anyone know about their son's secret… not even him until he was old enough to deal with the truth.

Margaret began to sing a lullaby to Barnabas and he slowly began to shut his eyes and fell into a peaceful sleep in his mother's arms. His eyes fluttered shut and he began to breathe quite peacefully. "James, what are we going to do?" Maggie was scared beyond all belief and had no idea what to do, but figuring that her husband was always the one with a plan; he might just have an idea.

"I'm not sure right now, but we'll figure something out… I'm sure of it." He was sitting down, a thousand different scenarios playing in his head at the moment, all of them ending very badly and all of them somehow duplicating his great-great-great uncle's life all the way down to the iron coffin and being buried alive for all eternity. The family business was almost completely gone, and this was just another hit to the Collins family. "But one thing that we have to do is what our family has always done since the beginning… endure."