Echoes in the Bayou (8 page)

They
watched as the young man walked around his room towards his desk. It was
obvious that he couldn’t see them and both were thankful for that. She was
cutting off the circulation to his hand but Magnus didn’t open his mouth. He
liked having her so close to him, even if it was during a supernatural event,
they were witnessing a part of everyday life on the Montieu plantation. 
The young man drew from his desk a sheet of paper, dip pen and inkwell. He
spoke out loud as he began writing the words. "My dearest Celeste, oh how
I enjoy our time together, meet me tonight at our special place.

Forever
yours
,

Will.
"

Ava and
Magnus exchanged looks and when they did, the room took them back to the
present time. The two continued to sit on the bed; it was as if they were
paralyzed. Ava was still holding on to his hand when she spoke. "Please
tell me that really just happened," she said in as calm a voice as
possible. She was trembling now and Magnus could feel her shudder. He pulled
her closer. "Yes it did," he said and let his eyes wander to the
place where the young man’s body seemed to disintegrate.  Ava looked at
him with amazement; a smile crept across her face as he boldly leaned in and
kissed her.

She
returned his kiss with fierce determination, but then something came over him,
his body jerked and he began turning his head from side to side as if he was
trying to shake something loose. In a swift move he pushed Ava down on the bed
and began pulling and pawing at her clothing, things were getting too rough, he
was getting too rough. When Ava tried to protest, she felt his hands wrap
around her throat. Immediately she knew that it was not Magnus who was trying
to hurt her, it was someone or something else. She quickly began reasoning with
him. "Magnus, I know you can hear me! This is not you Magnus. I know you
would never hurt me, please fight him Magnus; fight him!" She shouted.
"Let him go!" She screamed and with all her strength managed to push
him off, Magnus landed on the floor with a thump.

 
It took him a minute to realize what was going on.
"Oh my god Ava, did I hurt you?" He reached out to touch her but
recoiled.

"
Magnus, I'm alright, it’s alright," she said and
gathered him in her arms. "I know that wasn’t you. That thing, whatever it
is took control of you, and we’ve got to figure out who it is and get them the
hell out of this house."  The two sat like that on the floor, holding
each other for a very long while.

 
"You know Magnus, you really should have
mentioned this whole ghost possession, haunted thing in your job
description," she teased. It was noon time and the two had gone outside
for some much needed fresh air. While they walked around the property, Ava
couldn’t stop thinking about how despite everything that was going on, even
though it was only her second day there, she had felt such a strong attraction
to Magnus and why did the conversations between them flow so damn easy?

She had
known Gavin for a lot longer than she’d known Magn
us
and yet with Gavin, sometimes it was like pulling teeth to get him to talk, or
even listen for that matter. Except when they were making love, when he made
love to her it was as if they were the only two people alive.
Maybe that’s
just how I wanted it to be
, she
thought to herself.
But maybe Gavin was simply telling me what he thought
I wanted to hear.

She felt
so much closer to Magnus than she’d ever felt to any other man. But it wasn’t
just a physical thing, it was an intellectual thing and she felt strangely
vulnerable because of it.

While she
listened to Magnus talk, her conscience broke in.
What does your intuition tell you Ava? Do
you think this guy is for real or some nut job trying to pull a fast one on
you? After all, he did try to attack you on your bed,
her conscience reminded her.
And he was also
able to fight it. Besides, I know that wasn’t him,
she silently replied back. She had been so wrapped up
in her thoughts that she hadn’t noticed that Magnus had walked up ahead and now
stood frozen as he stared at the appearance of the front of the house.

The
pillars that were crumbling yesterday had now become anew, the layers of
peeling paint had somehow smoothed themselves out, and although the grass was
still tall and dead; wild flowers had seemingly sprouted and bloomed overnight.
The step that had caused Ava to trip looked as if it had never been damaged.
Magnus turned and looked at her. "Ava, this house is glad you’re
here," he said. "There’s no other explanation."

Giv
en what they’d both been through in the last twenty
four hours, Ava quietly agreed. "Now all we have to do is figure out what
all of it means," she said as she touched the smooth spot where the step
had been broken.

"We’ll
talk about it over some lunch, grab your purse, I'm taking you out. The both of
us could use some time away from this place," he said.

Chapter
Seven

From the
outside, Sam’s Seafood Shack looked as if it hadn’t seen a customer in days,
the parking lot in front of the small restaurant was empty.

Ava gave
Magnus a hesitant look.
"Trust me Ava, it may
look like nothing on the outside but the food is amazing," he said and led
her inside.  The tiny place may have looked like a shack on the outside
but once they walked in, wonderful smells instigated their senses to come
alive. Ava smiled when she heard the lively sound of the blues coming from an
old jukebox in the corner. Nothing about the place looked modern and she liked
that, she liked the feeling of stepping back in time. She liked it even better
as she was sure there would be no ghostly apparitions offering her a menu or
pouring her drink.

"So
what do you think?" Magnus asked. He’d hoped that she would like the
place. He remembered the first time he’d taken Jeanette there and needless to
say, she never wanted to return. But something told him that Ava was different,
she wasn’t all about glamour and glitz, she was down to earth and he liked that
about her.

"
The looks on the outside are a bit deceiving, but this
certainly makes up for it," she said while glancing around at the French
inspired, eclectic creole decorations. "I bet the food tastes just as
good," she beamed. "Thank you for suggesting we go out Magnus, you
were right it does feel good to get out of that house."

Ava
savored a sip of wine and sat back in her chair. "We really need to start looking
for answers," she said to Magnus. "And I’ve got to start staging the
house, I mean you hired me to do a job for you and so far all I’ve managed to
do is stir up some very odd and very scary spirits."

Magnus
had finished his beer and directed the waitress to
bring him another.

"
We’ll start looking tonight when we get back to the
house."

"
Okay… but what about the staging? I mean let’s face it
Magnus, the house will never sell the way it is. I mean don’t get me wrong it’s
a beautiful house, it really is. But not a lot of people can afford such a big
house, so what I want to do is make it as comfortable and cozy as
possible."

Magnus
could listen to her talk all day long; just the sound of her voice was
reassuring and melodic but he didn’t dare tell her that, not yet anyway, it was
too soon.

"
Ava I think it’s safe to say that the staging can
wait. You and I have much more important things to do than worry about what
color to paint the entranceway."

She knew
that he was right; there was no way she’d be able to c
oncentrate on decorating with ghosts running around the place. But that
led her to wonder about Gavin, he was still her boss. What would he say if she
was forced to postpone the job? She knew him well enough to know that he would
probably tell her that she wasn’t there to ghost hunt.  That she was there
to do a job. She needed to prove to Gavin that she could handle a big job like
this one, hell she needed to prove it to herself.

"Magnus
I don’t understand what’s going on, not one bit. I mean I came here to help you
make your house look like a home and so far all I’ve managed to do was get
attacked by a ghost, and kissed by my employer." She looked at him. Did he
see heat in her eyes just then? Was it heat of desire or anger? He couldn’t
tell. 

Lowering
her head and leaning over the table, she continued.
"And let’s not forget the living history exhibit that unfolded in the
bedroom, I mean what’s next? Are we going to find skeletons under the
floorboards? Oh and I bet there are some more ghosts in the attic," she
whispered as the waitress brought over their food.  One look at the
steaming bowl of seafood gumbo set before her and that was enough to squelch
the supernatural out of her mind, for the moment anyway.

It wasn’t
until the first bite that she had realized just how hungry she was and by the
looks of things so was Magnus. The two barely spoke while they devoured their
food.  Just as he was about to speak again, the vibration went off on his
cell phone. Looking at it, he excused himself and stepped outside. Ava took
advantage of his short absence and tried putting her thoughts in order.

What the hell are you doing Ava
?
She asked herself
.
I mean you’ve been here what? A day and
already you’re feeling a strong connection to this guy, and you know nothing
about him! Granted being accosted by a ghost can bring people closer but damn,
you just got dumped for Christ’s sake; give yourself some time to heal.
In some weird way, being at that house and spending
time with Magnus was definitely helping her to heal. So far she had not given
Gavin or Melanie a second thought and that was what she wanted. Magnus was
nothing like Gavin, there was such gentleness to him, and that was something
that Gavin would never possess.

When
Magnus returned to the table he informed her that he’d just gotten off the
phone with her boss, Gavin. "He tells me that you haven’t been answering
your cell. He wants to know how everything is going," Magnus said.

Ava
wasn’t expecting to hear from Gavin, at least not this soon.
"I haven’t been answering my cell because I have
been a bit preoccupied," she said matter of factly.

"
And…I’ve only been here a little over twenty four
hours, what the hell does he think I can accomplish in one goddamn day?"
She asked out loud.

"What
did you tell him?" She probed.

Magnus
could see the look in her eyes had changed. They were no longer calm, she was
angry but he didn’t know
why. "I told him
that things were going great and that he sent the perfect person for the job
Ava," he said with a smile. "He told me to tell you to give him a
call; he needs to know what’s going on. And, I don’t know what this next part
is about but he said that he really needs to speak with you. He said it was
important."

Magnus
looked at her inquisitively.  Ava knew that he was fishing for answers but
she wasn’t about to give him one. Talking about ghosts was one thing, but
sharing a part of her life that she wanted nothing more than to forget was
another.

Ava
sighed with a huff,
what the hell could Gavin want to talk to me about
? She thought to herself.
Could there be trouble in paradise? Well if there is,
it serves them both right and I want no part of it.

"
Magnus, I'm sure it’s nothing that you need to be
concerned about. Next time he calls please don’t take any personal messages from
him, keep things strictly business alright? He’s my boss but he’s not my
keeper."

"
I'm sorry Ava, I just thought that…"

"
What did you think Magnus? That I would just come out
and tell you all of my business? Or are you trying to find out if there’s something
going on between my boss and I? Magnus please don’t presume to know me because
you don’t and I'm tired of every one thinking that I am just so goddamn passive
and predictable, my boss included. You know one of these days I just might
surprise everybody and do something so unbelievable it’ll blow everyone’s
fucking mind," she cursed.

He looked
at her ste
rn like and staidly. "You're
right Ava I don’t know you, you’ve just made that quite obvious. Forgive me for
making the assumption, it won’t happen again," he barked.

"
Check
please." He then motioned to the waitress.

The drive back to the plantation was
an uncomfortable one to say the least. Neither spoke to the other as they
pulled into the driveway. Ava got out, slammed the car door and stomped up the
stairs to her room. She didn’t like a person assuming that they knew everything
about her.
That’s
exactly how Gavin treated me
, she
told herself.
Besides
, she argued with herself
. I didn’t come here for any other reason than to do
my job, and ghost or no ghost, that’s exactly what I'm going to do.