The Road Trip Series
by Cher

All Hallow's Eve - October 31, 2003

Part 3

Alexis walked slowly up the winding staircase, her hand trailing along an oak bannister weathered by time, each step upward steeper than the one she trod before. She was tired, her eyes blinking rapidly to focus, her gait unsteady.

I need some fresh air before I see Kristina, she decided.

She turned right into a passageway off the second floor landing and headed to an oversized oak door studded with iron fleur-de-lis. She pushed open the door and stepped out onto the parapet. She inhaled the brisk autumn air, the night turning cooler as dark swirling clouds painted the sky and muted the pulsing starlight. She looked out over the railing and thought about the last year as images filtered into her mind.

Alcazar's shocked face as he impaled himself on the knife and plummeted to his death, urging her daughter to live as she watched over her in NICU, holding her for the first time on Christmas Eve as Cameron looked on with a hint of sadness in his eyes, making love with him under the stars, the flag with her daughter's face fluttering in the breeze high on a mountaintop, the scent of times past infusing her when she walked into her parent's hidden Paris world, the alien sense of contentment as she watched her daughter sleep in her own crib.

Images distorted and wavy, she closed her eyes as she leaned against the railing.

"Ah, my little mouse, looking quite acceptable tonight... playing dress-up in Mommy's clothes... how quaint."

The voice was muffled and echoed in her head. She tried to open her eyes and focus but all she wanted to do was rest.

"What?" Alexis muttered, her eyelids like dead weights.

"It won't bring her back you know. She's quite dead, not even the scent of her perfume to hold onto, you poor thing," the voice said as it stroked her hair.

Alexis was trying very hard to pay attention but everything was very hazy. She tried to lift her arm and it dropped lifelessly back to her side.

"Not the smartest move to drink that punch, my dear. One would think that being raised around Cassadines you'd think twice before tasting nectar from an unknown honeybee. Or at least have someone else taste it first... like that handsome Dr. Lewis. Now there is a man I'd like to get to know... intimately...find out all the delicious secrets he keeps hidden... all those passions you, my mouse, could never elicit from him," the voice snickered as her mask was removed, her cheek lightly slapped.

The voice was louder now, an annoying gnat buzzing about her consciousness. "Such poor relationships with men but this one holds some promise. But, never fear, you'll disappoint him the way you disappoint everyone in your life and he'll walk away. You couldn't even hold onto the father of that bastard child of yours."

Drugged, Alexis thought groggily as she felt motion against her face and tried to open her eyes.

"And Ned Ashton... again? That was a very nice touch... for those who do not know you as well as I do."

She wanted to shout at the voice to stop talking, the hollow pain in her head now a persistent knocking.

O"ne would think that your own illegitimacy issues would make you think twice about stigmatizing your own child but I guess inferior genetics will always win out in the end. "

She felt a finger trace down her cheek and along her neck to rest upon the sapphire necklace. "So, as the saying goes...like Mother like daughter. But the burning question remains... will history repeat itself?"

Alexis felt herself jerked forward, the blue stones twisting around her neck like a noose.

"The Mother dying before the child's eyes. So efficient of you to bring your pretty little princess to our home. I do adore symmetry but boredom is a pet peeve so slicing your throat seems a bit redundant."

Her eyes burst open as the voice suddenly penetrated and she croaked, "Helena."

Helena clapped. "Brava! You are finally paying attention!"

She felt as if she was drowning in a vat of molasses, trying to kick to the surface. She needed to get away, to find Cameron, to protect her daughter but she was frozen in place. How could she have been so reckless! This was the perfect opportunity for Helena to strike... a masquerade ball... and she walked right into her trap - and brought her daughter along.

"Kristina..." Alexis whispered through parched lips.

"It would appear you have a problem holding onto babies with the name Kristina. You really need to work on that, my dear."

Alexis managed to push herself up slightly against the railing.

"Watch out... we wouldn't want you to fall. But then it would be so.... oh what would that dead red-headed sister of yours say... karmic... yes that is the term. Do you know the story of Tosca, little mouse? It is all about the illusory nature of happiness. The passionate diva who loves a little too well but none too wisely and eventually plunges to her death from... and here is where the karma part comes in... a PARAPET!"

Cameron, her mind cried, where are you?

* * *

Cameron was sitting at a small table for two in the corner watching the doorway as two plates of food congealed before him. He knew Alexis forgets about the concept of time when she is with Kristina but it had been much too long and he was getting nervous. She seemed exhausted when she walked away and just before their conversation with her brother she'd been full of life. He was giving her ten more minutes and then going to find her.

"Hey, Quack, nice legs," a voice chirped in his ear.

Cameron looked up at Luke Spencer. "Nice sheet. Do I call you Casper or did you forget how to tie a toga?"

"Hah! Good one, Doc. Just thought I'd crash and since the costume store was all out of Mickey Mouse, I grabbed a sheet and a pair of scissors and voilá!." He twirled and looked around, "So, where's Tash?"

"Upstairs with Kristina, I think."

"What do you mean 'you think'? Rule is ya gotta know where your chess pieces are in this gothic house of doom, Doc. And from that furrowy brow of yours I assume something is up."

Cameron stood up and leaned close to Luke. "We were talking to Steffin on the terrace, she had some punch and then we came in to the buffet."

"Sounds pretty standard party behavior even for this joint, Doc, so why the seriosity?"

"She seemed tired all of sudden... she stumbled on the way to the buffet and said she needed to see her daughter and freshen up and she'd be back. That was a half-hour ago."

Luke poked him in the arm. "Who gave her the punch?"

"Steffin called over a waiter and he brought it. She only drank a small amount... made a face doing it... and set the glass down next to one of the statues. Hey! Where are you going?"

Cameron watched as Luke raced to the terrace and he quickly followed.

Luke found the glass still hidden and sniffed the contents. He put his finger in and brought it to his lips, tasted it and grimaced.

"This ain't just punch... something else... probably some drug."

Cameron looked back at the ballroom where the party was going full steam.

"We have to find her."

* * *

Helena squatted next to Alexis and watched her continue to focus her eyes until they looked into her own.

"My, my, you must not have enjoyed my little brew. You should be quite paralyzed by now. Pity... I was hoping this would be less messy than your poor misguided Mother. Drycleaning is such an expense."

Alexis swallowed as she tried to force cleansing breaths into her lungs. "You always underestimate me, Helena. I learned how to survive you from the day you murdered my Mother."

"Your Mother... ah yes, the beauteous Kristin Bergmann... mousey governess turned opera diva...adored by the great unwashed masses...uncaring whore who wreaked havoc in my family, bewitched my husband and had the gall to give birth to two bastard daughters!"

Helena leaned into her face and muttered in Italian, Ah, mi avvinci nei tuoi lacci mia sirena! (Ah, you have caught me in your snare, my siren!).

She rose up and stalked to the other side of the wall and gripped a stone gargoyle until her knuckles were white.

Alexis whispered raggedly as she tried unsuccessfully to flex her legs. "Mikkos loved my Mother and he loved me and my sister. Nothing you can say will change that."

Helena smirked at her, the torchlight painting eerie shadows on her face. "But what I did changed it. I killed her and wiped her out of his life with one swish of a blade. My mistake was not wiping out you and that little brat sister of yours too."

Alexis could feel tingling in her fingers as the blood flowed and she knew her only chance was to keep her talking.

"You succeeded in killing her and keeping him from loving me but he never stopped loving her memory. I know that and you know that and it galls you. The moment you stepped across the threshold of the Paris apartment you knew, the moment you passed through the rose arbor in Kent, you knew. He kept those places - their places - because he loved her even more in death than he ever loved you in life."

Helena looked over at her leaning against the railing and softly sang, her voice a whispered dagger on the night breeze.

Non la sospiri la nostra casettache tutta ascosa nel verde ci aspetta?Nido a noi sacro, ignoto al mondo inter,pien d'amore e di mister?

(Don't you sigh for our little housewaiting for us, hidden among the trees?Our sacred love-nest, unknown to the whole world,full of love and mystery?)

Helena laughed wickedly, "Who would have believed that your choice of costume from Tosca would be so very prescient."

la notte escon bisbiglidi minuscoli amorie perfidi consigliche ammolliscono i cuori.

(at night whispers are heard of tiny loves, unfaithful counsels that soften the heart.)

Alexis was becoming concerned because she now sounded quite unhinged but she had to continue to bait her, keep her occupied until either her strength returned or someone found them.

She was not betting at all on the latter.

"You can kill me, Helena, kill my child and still the reality remains. Mikkos is dead and you can never regain his love or change the past, his past of loving my Mother."

Alexis looked over at her and sneered. "Life's a bitch, isn't it?"

Helena calmly walked over and knelt down, leaning into her face with a feral look in her eye. She only cared for herself...Vissi d'arte (I lived for my art).

Alexis recalled the words of Tosca's aria and retorted, Vissi d'amore, non feci mai male ad anima viva! (I lived for love, I never did harm to a living soul!).

She looked at Alexis as if she was an idiot. "No harm? She harmed me and my Stavros and used my besotted husband for her own ends so I did what he seemed incapable of... I freed him from her."

She sang off-key as she looked in Alexis's eyes.

O dolci mani mansuete e pure,o mani elette a bell'opre pietose,a carezzar fanciulli, a coglier rose,a pregar, giunte, per le sventure,dunque in voi, fatte dall'amore secure,Giustizia le sue sacre armi depose?Voi deste morte, o mani vittoriose,o dolci mani mansuete e pure!

(Oh sweet hands, gentle and pure,oh hands made for nobler tasks,made to caress children, to gather roses,to join in prayer for those less fortunate,then it was in you, out of secure lovethat Justice put her sacred weapons?You bestowed death, oh victorious hands)

Helena eyes gleamed and her expression changed from madness to frigid calmness and that scared Alexis. She had come to the end of her little theatrical play and was about to move. Alexis felt the blood flowing back into her legs and bided her time.

Helena kissed her forehead and whispered softly, "The entr'acte, little mouse, has ended and your final scene as Floria Tosca is upon you. Running to the parapet you will shout to your dear departed Mother Avanti a Dio! (We shall meet before God!) and hurl yourself to your death."

Alexis stared into her eyes and simply whispered, "Not today, as she pushed out with all her strength and shoved Helena back. Surprised, she tripped backward and fell against the stone wall. Both heads turned as the large oak door was flung back and Cameron and Luke burst onto the parapet. In a flash, Helena disappeared through a passageway hidden in the far wall and was gone.

"Alexis, my God, are you alright? She didn't hurt you, did she?" Cameron shouted as he wrapped his arms around her, his body trembling with fear as he held her tight.

Alexis somehow found the energy to chuckle. "You can stop shouting in my ear, I'm fine. She didn't hurt me, just sang Italian opera - badly - and waxed poetic about the nasty circumstances of my birth. I stopped her before she could push me off the parapet in one of her Wagnerian frenzies. Not that I wasn't going to jump myself soon if she favored me with any more of her little Tosca ditties. She better not give up her day job."

Cameron shook his head ruefully as he showered her with kisses, happy to have her safely back in his arms

Luke wandered back through the passageway shaking his head. "She's like Houdini... no trace of her in the passageway but she did leave a calling card."

He held up a delicate chain that held a large single diamond in the shape of a teardrop.

Alexis held out her hand to look at it. There was something embedded in the center of the diamond but it was hard to see in the reflection of dim torchlight. She shook her head and handed it back to Luke. The image of her daughter blazed across her mind and she immediately stiffened and tried to get up.

Cameron noticed the motion and asked, "What's wrong?"

"I must get to Kristina."

Cameron lifted her into his arms and carried her to her room, each step agony for her until they reached the door. Luke flung it open and frightened poor Mrs. Lansbury who jumped up, a pearl-handled pistol held in her hand as she stood in front of the crib.

Luke put up his hands. "Hey, take it easy, we're the good guys."

She looked down at a sleeping Kristina and shushed him, exhaling as she lowered the gun, an apology in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Miss Alexis, I hate guns but I had to be ready."

Cameron loved this woman with her powerful need to protect Alexis and her daughter. "Helena drugged her and tried to push her off the parapet."

"Oh Mother of God, no," she murmured as she crossed herself.

Alexis smiled weakly as she nestled in Cameron's arms. She knew she should ask him to put her down but she felt safe in his sturdy embrace and she was still too shaken by what could have happened.

"She disappeared into the passageways and we couldn't find her."

Luke piped up from across the room where he bent over to give Kristina a kiss. "But she left this."

He held up the necklace. "Hey, Tash, I wonder of this was in that safe in the Paris apartment?"

Mrs. Lansbury looked at it grimly and shook her head. "No, Mr. Spencer, it couldn't be."

Alexis looked at the odd expression on her face and a chill slithered down her spine. She was almost afraid to ask the question. "Why could it not have been in the safe?"

The woman looked at her, eyes filled with confusion and fear and softly whispered, "Because it belonged to your Mother. Mr. Mikkos had it made especially for her - a diamond encasing a miniature rose."

"But couldn't my Father have stored it in Paris for safekeeping?"

"No, Miss Alexis, I'm afraid not. You see, it was buried with her."

Alexis swallowed the lump in her throat. "How can you be certain of that?"

"Because I put it around her throat the day she was buried."

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