Tony Peterson sat in his law office in Bangor, Maine, thinking about how far he’d come in such a short period of time. I went from trying to sue the Collins family for a worker’s injury—and lost— he thought, to moving to Bangor and starting over again with this practice. The clients kept pouring in, as if by magic…
Tony shuddered a bit at the word magic. He did not want to think about Cassandra Collins, and the love spell she’d put on him to bend him to her will…
He was shaken out of his thoughts by a knock on the door. “It’s open,” he called.
Tony’s secretary Effie came in with a package. “Today’s post had something unusual in it,” she said. “There’s no return address, but the name on the package just says ‘Cassandra…’”
Tony looked shocked.
Effie put the package on Tony’s desk. “Should I open it?” she asked.
“No… just… leave it there,” Tony said.
Effie shrugged, and went back into the outer office.
Tony thought about throwing the package away. Wonder if it’s another spell? he thought. Wonder if she wants to enchant me again…?
After staring at the package for a good ten minutes, Tony’s curiosity got the better of him.
He opened the package.
Inside was a little box about 10 inches long, that looked like a coffin.
There was also a letter.
Tony read:
~~~
Dearest Tony:
Hello—from a ghost from your past!
I wanted you to know that I have totally changed my ways. I’ve fallen in love with a rich, powerful, handsome businessman… He loves me for me. I didn’t have to cast a spell or anything.
So, I’ve decided to give up magic and become a good wife to him…
First, though, I decided to use a little magic to make amends with you. I did you a great wrong by forcing you to fall in love with me… I decided that the only way to make up for the great wrong I did you was to give you two gifts.
The first was that I cast a simple good luck spell. Your law practice should be growing by leaps and bounds by now. As long as you take the side of the downtrodden, you will have nothing but success. If you take the side of the rich and powerful, such as the Collins family, you will lose your good luck. Please do not do so. The poor need a crusader. Stay away from going up against any foe that is too big for you to handle, and you shall do well.
I also realized that a certain someone may have unfinished business with you, so I made you another little gift, powerfully enchanted. You will know what to do with it when the time comes.
Again, I’m sorry for any inconvenience my magic may have caused you.
Maybe we’ll meet again someday in more favorable circumstances.
Sincerely,
“Cassandra”
~~~
Tony opened the lid of the little coffin-like box and frowned.
“…May I never have to use this…” he said. He replaced the lid.
Leaving the box on his desk, Tony left the room, and walked into his outer office. “Angel,” he said to Effie, “how about I take you out to supper? My treat.”
Effie smiled.
The next couple of days were not pleasant ones for Tony Peterson, Attorney at Law. He kept on feeling a supernatural presence around him. He wondered if it was Cassandra’s doing, a kind of aftereffect of touching the box…
Then, three nights later, when he was working late, he looked up from what he was doing to see a familiar figure standing in front of him.
“…Holy Moses—” Tony said.
“Anthony Peterson, I need you to come and do the Lord’s work,” commanded Reverend Trask loudly.
“…I don’t stick my neck out for anybody,” said Tony.
“You will do as I command! The Lord decrees it! For does not the Bible say…” Trask began to reel off a bunch of Bible verses.
Tony sighed. Trask could be so long-winded when he didn’t get his way… “—Let’s cut to the chase,” said Tony. “What exactly are you demanding I do?”
The Reverend Trask smiled grimly. “Barnabas Collins must die.”
Tony sighed again. “What’s he done now?”
Trask arched one eyebrow. “I do not know if you know this… but Barnabas Collins is one of the living dead.”
Tony took a deep breath and let it out in a third sigh. “Yeah, I know…”
“You… knew?”
“Yeah. I once had a client named Dr. Julia Hoffman. She left a notebook with me. After matters in Collinsport became very strange indeed, I decided I’d better violate my client-attorney confidentiality and read the good doctor’s notebook, and I did. In it, she was very detailed about her patient’s vampire curse… She laid out Barnabas’ history, and her attempts to cure him… Since I saw him walking around in broad daylight later, I assume that she succeeded in her cure…”
“Do you not think that a vampire should be destroyed?!”
Tony drew a deep breath, and this time let it out very slowly, thinking. He looked at the coffin-like box on his desk… “…Reverend Trask, Dr. Hoffman wrote that Barnabas Collins was locked up in a coffin for 175 years, which is the equivalent of three life sentences in solitary confinement. I think that’s punishment enough for one man, no matter what crimes he committed. So no, I will not help you exact revenge upon the accursed man who killed you. Sorry, but a statute of limitations has to kick in some time…”
“Peterson, I am not looking for revenge.”
“Revenge, justice, whatever you’re selling, I’m not buying—”
“—You must listen to my words, Peterson. Barnabas was indeed cured of his vampire curse. As such, perhaps one might suppose that his sins died with his curse. However, he has recently been accursed once again, so he must be destroyed before he can kill again!”
“Did… the witch… re-curse him?”
“No. She too has turned her back on her sinful ways… at least so far. Perhaps the exorcism that I once performed on her finally worked after all. The Lord works in mysterious ways, Peterson, his wonders to perform.”
“Then who’s cursed Collins this second time?”
“An evil cult called The People of the Leviathan. Barnabas Collins is trying to defeat them, to put an end to their evil, so they accursed him to be a vampire once more.”
“…Holy Moses,” said Tony.
Tony thought about his first year in law school. He’d met a cute gal named Bridget. Bridget and Tony had dated for a while. Tony had had a run of good luck back then, too, getting a job offer for a prestigious law firm. Bridget had told him that she’d used her influence to get him that job offer… Tony was skeptical, but when she called the head of the firm and chatted with him like they were old friends, Tony knew that she was telling the truth…
“I’ve encountered the Leviathans before,” Tony told Trask.
“…You have?” Trask asked, dumbfounded.
“A gal I knew offered to let me join their little group. She said that they were rich and powerful, with people in the highest places in the land. She said that joining the group would make me a real mover and shaker… There was something off about the offer; it didn’t pass the smell test. I told her that while I appreciated the offer, I wasn’t interested in joining a cult. She warned me that if I wouldn’t become one of them, that I should stay out of their way, or else I wouldn’t live long enough to regret it—that if I ever went up against them, I’d be very, very sorry.” Tony gave Trask a look. “I told her,” he said carefully, “that I don’t stick my neck out for anybody.”
“I’m not asking you to defeat the Leviathans,” said Trask with a tone of frustration, “I’m demanding that you destroy a vampire!”
“You’re crazy as a loon, Trask.”
“I fail to see how demanding that you eradicate an evil vampire is acting in an insane fashion…”
“Barnabas is the lesser of two evils. Let him take down the Leviathans, or try. I say, good luck to him—because as far as I’m concerned, it takes a monster to defeat other monsters.”
“No, Peterson, it takes the power of the Lord Himself—”
“—Yes, and that leaves me out. I’m just a lawyer, not a ministering angel of the Lord’s justice.”
“I need you to be my strong right arm—”
“—And I’ve told you no, Reverend. I don’t stick my neck out for anybody. The very last time I lost hold of my good sense and tried having anything to do with the Collins family, I got jumped by a giant—some seven-foot tall bruiser with scars all over him—and after that, sir, is when I got in my car and left that town in my rear-view mirror! I’m declining the offer to take your case, just like I declined that fancy job offer I got. You are not my client, and I’m not your boy, and you’ll just need to get that through your head—”
“—Anthony Peterson, I shall haunt you day and night until you do as I demand—”
“—No, I don’t think so,” Tony said. He grabbed the box on the desk, picked it up, and removed its lid, showing the contents to Trask.
Inside was a little doll that looked just like the Reverend himself.
Trask licked his ephemeral lips. “…That doll…” he said slowly, “…is the work of the devil…”
“What it is,” said Tony, replacing the lid, “is a way to keep you off my back.”
“I demand that you destroy that doll…”
“No thanks,” said Tony, and he got up from his chair, and turned to his wall safe.
“Wait—what do you think you’re doing, Peterson?”
“I was down in that basement—I saw what was left of you—the only way to get rid of a Trask is to wall him up—”
Quickly, Tony opened his safe and placed the box inside.
“Peterson, no! Stop! I cannot—”
Tony swung the door of the safe shut, and spun the dial on the lock.
…The Reverend Trask’s spirit was gone.
“…I don’t stick my neck out for anybody,” said Tony.
Then he took his trenchcoat from his coat rack, put it on, and walked out into the cold night air.