429 - February 15, 1968

[bunniefuu]

[narrator] -A séance has been held in the great house at Collinwood.

A séance, which has suspended time and space

and send one girl on an uncertain

and frightening journey into the past

back to the year .

There Victoria Winters is helpless to alter

the tragic events being acted out

before her terror-stricken eyes.

Josette Collins, she knew was doomed to die

a violent and horrible death

and now it has come to pass.

- Why have you stopped your work?

- The sun has gone down.

- Was your task determined by the rising

- or the setting of the sun? - No.

- Then continue your labors.

- I will, but you mustn't come out.

- Why?

You said the sun had set.

- I don't want you to see what I'm doing.

I don't want you to look at it.

- Why should I avoid the sights of an open plot of earth?

- You know it's no ordinary grave I'm digging.

- Are you afraid that I would hate the sight

of such an open plot of earth?

- I know you would.

- Are you afraid that I would take hold of such a man?

Are you afraid that I would grasp his throat

and fling him into the earth?

- Mr. Barnabas, no, please, I have to do my work.

- She is dead.

Josette is dead. How dare you dig her grave?

- Mr. Barnabas, no, no!

♪♪

[eerie theme music] ♪♪

Mr. Barnabas, please,

you wouldn't want anyone else to dig her grave,

you know you wouldn't.

- Go finish your work.

- You will stay in here, won't you?

- Is there a wind tonight?

- Why do you ask?

- Does it blow off the sea through the trees

- and down the meadows? - Yes.

- Are there stars? - No.

- Good.

- Is there a mist from the sea? - Yes.

- Good.

- Why are you asking me this?

- I want the night to be dark.

Dark.

- What do you mean?

- I wouldn't the stars to see the happenings this night.

- What are you going to do?

- I have deeds to do.

- Why should anyone live when she is dead? - You can't.

- They all clear the plague.

Well, I will visit them with a pestilence

that will leave them nothing but the wish

for a sudden and speedy death.

- You can't go out, you must stay here.

- My rage will burst these walls.

My agony will crumble all these stones.

- You don't want to hurt other people, innocent people,

you don't want that.

- Destruction, that's all I want.

Destruction everywhere, death, blood.

- Today is already marked with the blood

of Miss Josette let it end there.

- I want to see her.

- You can't.

- I want to look on her one last time.

- You wouldn't want that. - One last time.

- You know how she died.

You know what the rocks at the bottom of the cliff did to her.

- No. Don't tell me.

- Remember her as she was.

- Did you see her?

- The last thing I saw was a thin, frail hand.

- Her hand...

- She was covered with a linen sheet,

but her hand was there, white as marble.

- Was she - was she wearing the ring,

the ring I gave her?

- No. She lost it.

- Lost it?

- Aye.

Just before she went to Widow's Hill.

- Oh, then I must find it.

She mustn't be buried without it.

It was my pledge to her and hers to me.

- Forget about the ring. - Never!

- It almost destroyed you already.

You never should have given it to Miss Josette

- in the first place. - How can you say that?

- I didn't want to tell you this,

but your father saw the ring on Miss Josette's hand.

He recognized it as yours.

- What did it mean to him?

- He remembered that you've been wearing it

when you were buried.

- What did he do?

- He came here and opened the coffin.

- He what?

- When he opened the coffin, it was dark,

the coffin was empty.

- So he knows.

My father knows.

- He knows nothing yet.

- How can you say that?

- He thought at first, the body had been stolen

by grave robbers,

what else could he think.

Then when he came here again opened up the coffin,

he saw - he saw--

- What?

- He saw you in the coffin.

Now, he's satisfied.

He thinks it must have been his imagination.

- Then the danger is past.

- The danger is never past.

Forget about the ring.

Too many questions would be asked if it was seen again.

Let it go.

- It was my pledge to her.

- Let it go. I beg you, let it go!

- And hers to me.

♪♪

- Another death more tragic than the last.

My heart bleeds for this poor, unfortunate family.

- Will it ever end, this curse? - Yes.

- It will end,

but not until it has been destroyed at the source.

- I understand you perfectly.

As long as Miss Winters lives.

- Every living soul is in mortal danger,

- yours, mine. - Yes,

- Why does that stupid judge prolong this needless trial?

That girl is indisputably a witch,

why can't he see that?

- He, alas, does not have the clarity of vision

that is the singular reward of the good

and the truly just.

- Of course, she may well have some

diabolical influence over him.

- No, I don't think it's anything as complicated as that.

We both know that our first enemy is not the judge,

but rather that young upstart

who insist on defending Miss Winters.

- Oh, if he only knew what he was doing.

- I have made repeated attempts to indicate his errors.

- Have you made it clear to him in no uncertain words?

- I have made the perils of his soul most vivid,

I assure you.

- Yes, but have you made the hazards of this world

clear as well?

- What do you mean?

- It's perfectly simple.

His defense of Miss Winters is contrary

to the best interest of the Collins family.

- That has been mentioned. - It would be repeating

- if he expects to advance.

He must remember that advancement is usually made

with the assistance not the opposition

of the Collins family.

- He's a most stubborn young man.

- Stubbornness is a vice, dear Reverend,

that I think it's your duty to eradicate.

- You want me to talk to Young Bradford?

- You might go further than mere talk.

- I believe I see my duty clearly.

I shall look to it tonight.

- Oh, all of this would be unnecessary

if only we could lay our hands on that book.

- I agree.

Much as I shudder at the thought of touching something

so obviously of the devil.

- Oh, to save us all, we must dare much.

We must use every power at our command. We--

- I beg your pardon, Miss Abigail,

Mr. Joshua send me with some old wood for the fire.

- You say Mr. Joshua sent you?

I doubt it.

- He did, ma'am, I swear to it.

- No, Providence sent you,

knowing that I had some very important

questions to ask you.

- I haven't finished my other chores yes, Miss Abigail.

- My questions are few.

I shall do my duty here, Reverend.

I'm sure you will do yours.

- Indeed, good lady.

And they shall be done with dispatch.

Good night.

- Reverend.

- Ben! - Yes, ma'am.

- I have a service to ask of you.

- Well, yes, ma'am.

- A service that I'm sure would please you to perform.

- Yes, ma'am.

- I ask you because I am certain of your devotion

to the Collins family.

- Yes, ma'am.

- When the trial resumes, I want you to testify. - Me, ma'am?

- I want you to tell the court

what Miss Winters forced you to do.

- She didn't force me to do nothing.

- How she forced you to come to my room that night

and steal that little piece of ribbon.

- She didn't.

- You said yourself the witch made you do it.

- Now, I heard that with my own ears.

You could tell me, you can tell the court.

- I didn't mean that when I said it.

- You're lying.

- I'm telling the truth, ma'am, I swear to it.

- Ben!

What is your work tonight?

- You know what it is, Miss Abigail.

- You are to dig the grave, is that true?

- Yes, ma'am.

- I have another task for you.

- I fear it will take me most of the night.

- No, you can do it at the same time

it won't interrupt the other.

- I don't understand.

- As you dig the grave,

remember its purpose to house the dead

and remember there are many paths to the grave

and the path can be found for you

filled with backbreaking punishment

at that prison from which you came.

So dig the grave and ponder my words.

♪♪

[thinking] -I don't understand it,

any of it,

the history of Collins family.

Things put down that I see happening all around me

if I only could understand.

[knocking]

Who is it?

-Mr. Bradford, I want a word with you.

- Mr. Trask?

-Reverend Trask.

[knocking]

Mr. Bradford.

- I'm terribly busy.

-I won't require more than a moment.

- What is it?

- May I come in?

- I thought you only required a moment.

- Is it too much to ask that I also require

a minimum of courtesy?

- What is it you want?

- Strange.

I was about to ask you the very same question.

- Come to the point.

- All right.

What is it that you want?

- At the moment, your absence might sum it up.

- Come, come, Mr. Bradford,

I'm sure you understand better than that what I'm saying.

- I'm afraid I don't.

- Rather a humble fair you have to eat, isn't it?

- I have enough to eat, thank you.

- Your lodgings,

I should imagine this room gets quite cold on occasion.

- I'm not uncomfortable.

- I notice you can't even afford some wench

to come in and do a little cleaning and mending.

- Say what you have to say and get out of here,

I told you I have work to do.

- I took you for a much more intelligent young man.

- If that's all you have to say, you can go.

- All right, I'll be blunt.

You're young.

You have a future,

but what kind of a future depends on you.

- Are you threatening me? - On the contrary,

- I've come to help you. - I doubt it.

- Don't you see that you're in trouble?

- I will be all right.

- The enmity of the Collins family

can be an unbearable burden.

- I'll survive.

- Is that the way you really feel?

- I'm not going to stop my defense of Miss Winters.

- Good evening, Mr. Trask. - Is this the future you chart for yourself,

- a life of squalor? - I said, good evening.

- Look around you, poverty,

living in this shabby little room,

eating food barely fit for a swine,

wearing clothes that would disgrace the scarecrow--

- My way of living is no concern to you

or the Collins family

and you can tell whoever it was who sent you here

that it's not going to change.

- Don't you realize what a mistake you're making? - Yes.

- And I wonder the same about you.

- What?

What do you mean?

- I wonder if you ever stop just once

and only your lies and hypocrisies

and think what a waste it is to sell out your life,

your one and only life

by trying to destroy everything you don't understand.

- This is insolence.

- It's the truth, Mr. Trask.

Good night, Reverend.

- Ben?

Ben!

- Who is it?

Who's there?

Who is it?

Who's there?

- What are you doing here? - Ben.

- What are you doing in this place?

- I heard someone call.

- You don't belong in a graveyard

at this time of night if you hear voices.

- It was a voice I recognized.

-You heard me calling you.

-No, that couldn't have been.

- I'm telling you it was me.

- Whoever it was seemed to have been calling you.

- You're hearing things.

- I'd swear I saw a door slamming shut here.

-There ain't no doors in here.

-But I saw it.

-You saw shadows and you heard me calling.

Now, clear on and out of here.

- But I'm certain I-- -You ain't certain of anything.

- And you ain't got no right to be here in the first place.

- I was just taking a short cut on my way home to town.

- Well, suppose you just continue on your way.

The Collins family don't like trespassers.

- Are you sure it was you who was called? - Positive.

- Now clear out of here or you'll be in trouble,

more trouble than you know what to do with.

Mr. Joshua Collins isn't going to be so ready to believe

that story about taking a short cut home.

- I - I suppose if nothing is wrong--

- Nothing is wrong if you clear out of here, quick.

- All right.

- Where are you going?

- He heard me.

I'm sure he saw the panel close.

He can't be allowed to reach his home.

- He ain't sure if he's seen or heard anything.

- I cannot take that chance.

- You can't take the chance of do anything to him.

Besides, that boy is the only chance Miss Winters has got.

- Are you certain he actually saw nothing?

- Positive.

- All right then for Miss Winters' sake.

I see your work is done.

- Almost.

- No matter.

Pile earth a mountain high it will make no difference.

- I don't understand.

- I do not know what powers are mine

or how far they reach into the dark,

but I promise now, I will summon their full force

- to call her back. - No.

- I - I have made my own dark conquest of the grave,

hers will be next, this I swear.

♪♪

[eerie theme music] ♪♪