The Ghosts Of New Orleans (A PARANORMAL RESEARCH AND CONTAINMENT DIVISION (PRCD) CASE FILE) (23 page)

The morning dawned clear and
bright.  Eloise, Sally and Paul packed all of their equipment into the back of
the SUV.  

“Okay, you keep researching this in
case something goes wrong and we end up with an army of zombies,” Eloise said
to Sally.

“This totally sucks,” Sally said,
“I came up with the solution and now I get to stay home and play on the
computer.”

Paul put his arm around Sally and
gave her a squeeze.  “Sally, you’ve got to know that we don’t want to risk
you,” he said, “We have to take the risk. You and Turner need to stand back and
report in case anything goes wrong.”

Sally shrugged his arm off her
shoulders.

“Nothing is going to go wrong.”
Sally muttered, “And if it did, I should be around to figure out what we do
next.”

Eloise climbed into the SUV, closed
the door and rolled down the window.           “Sal, you are the best friend
anyone could have,” she said, “I promise I’ll do my best for you.”

Paul climbed into the driver’s
seat. “You keep practicing your voodoo spells and I’ll drive.”

Eloise smiled up at him. “Let’s
go.”

The SUV pulled away from the base
and headed down the road. Sally waited for a minute, slowly counting as the
seconds went by.

“Fifty-eight, fifty-nine, sixty,”
she whispered.

The she turned and ran from the
motor home to the tent that had housed both Paul and Sergeant Turner the night
before.  She knocked frantically on the pole outside the tent.

“Sergeant Turner, Sergeant Turner,
come quickly!!!” she yelled.

Turner ran out of the tent, nearly
colliding with Sally.

“Yes, ma’am, what’s wrong?”

Sally shook her head desperately
and looked up at Turner with all the innocence she could muster. “They’ve left
an important piece of equipment,” she lied, “I was just walking back to the
motor home and found it on the grass.  They have to have it.”

Turner studied Sally for a moment.

“Well, ma’am, we can take the
Hummer and I can catch them in about 10 minutes and we can transfer the equipment
and head back here,” he said, “Or, we might need to drive a little slower, so
we actually have to follow them to the plantation and be there in case they
need some help.”

Sally grinned at the Marine.
“Sergeant, I think I love you.”

Turner blushed and then cleared his
throat. 

“Ma’am, may I ask what the piece of
equipment is?”

Sally pulled a tape measure out
from behind her back and shrugged. “You just never know when you’re going to
need to measure something.”

Turner grinned. “Yes, ma’am, you
just never know.”

The drive to the plantation was a now
a familiar drive for Eloise. But the pit in her stomach was not.

“You look more worried than usual,”
Paul said, “What’s up? Don’t you like Sally’s plan?”

Eloise shook her head. “No, I think
that Sal’s plan is great.”

She paused, wondering if she should
tell him about the sacrifice that she would have to make when she called on
Agwe.  She glanced over at Paul through lowered lashes, thought about all of
the things they had been through in the past few days and decided that if
nothing else, she could give him truth.

“Paul, when Sally and I went into
Baton Rouge we realized that dealing with Delphine was a two-part plan,” she
began, “We can’t just deal with Delphine, we are also going to have to deal
with Yemanja.”

“So, how do you deal with a Voodoo
goddess?” Paul asked.

“You have to summon a stronger god
to overpower the one you want to deal with,” Eloise said.

“And how do you summon this god?”
Paul asked.

Eloise explained the ritual that
she had received from Mary Margaret and then she paused.  Paul turned and
looked at her.

“So, are you going to tell me the
next part?” he asked.

Eloise looked up at him. “How do
you know there’s a next part?”

Paul shrugged. “Just a gut
feeling.”

Eloise nodded and then explained,
“There has to be a sacrifice.”

“What kind of sacrifice?”

Eloise shrugged. “I don’t know,
Mary Margaret just said the greater the sacrifice, the more powerful the
spell.”

“How many different kinds of
sacrifices can there be?” Paul asked.

“Well, not too many,” Eloise said.
“Often for ritual sacrifices, they used to use animals.”

“But we’re not using animals,
right?” Paul asked, slowing the SUV and pulling it over to the side of the
road.  He put the car in park and turned to Eloise. “So, when were you going to
tell me that you are planning on sacrificing yourself?”

Eloise turned to Paul and shook her
head. “Paul, I’m not really planning on sacrificing myself,” she said, she bit
down on her lower lip and shook her head, “I just don’t know what will be asked
of me.”

Paul placed his elbows on the
steering wheel and rubbed his hand over his forehead as he contemplated the
scenario.

“So, we’re going into this blind,”
he said.

“I’m going into this blind,” she
corrected.

Paul lifted his head and turned to
her. “If you think that for one moment I’m going to let you shoulder this by
yourself, you’re crazy.”

“Paul,” Eloise began.

Paul shook his head, hurt and anger
warring in his eyes. “What does it take, Eloise, what the hell does it take to
make you realize that you are not alone in this world?  After what we’ve gone
through together, after yesterday, hell, after Sally’s test – Eloise, when are
you going to have faith?  When are you going to stop being afraid?”

He turned away from her, put the
car in drive and started back down the highway.

Eloise hugged herself and turned
her face to the window, fighting back the tears of hurt and frustration. Didn’t
he understand that she was only protecting him?  Didn’t he see that it wasn’t
his responsibility, it was hers?  Didn’t he understand the she couldn’t let him
die?

The remainder of the drive to the
plantation was done in silence. Each lost in their own thoughts.

Paul pulled up in front of the
plantation and turned to Eloise.

“Okay, so what would you like me to
do?” he asked, in his most formal tone.

Eloise took a deep breath and
turned to him.  “If we can find the ingredients that Delphine needs to summon
Yemanja, we won’t have to worry about any sacrifices.  We thought that she
might have them stored in the house.”

Paul nodded. “What kinds of things
are we looking for?”

“Cornmeal, some kind of musical
instrument – like a drum or rattle, perhaps some offerings to Yemanja, she
likes the color blue,” Eloise said. “I’m hoping that Delphine stored all of
them together.”

“Where do you think we should
look?”

Eloise shrugged. “Well Sally and I
went through the west wing and the attic but didn’t see anything like that.  I
started searching the east wing yesterday…”

She paused for a moment and lowered
her head, the memories of the previous day rushing back and making her stomach
clutch.  She took a deep breath.

“I only got as far as the second
room…”

Paul reached over and placed his
hand on hers. “I’ll finish searching the second floor; you don’t have to go up
there again.”

She looked up to him, “Thank you,
Paul. I’ll check the first floor – the kitchen might be a good spot.”

He nodded. “Good, I’ll report back
to you when I’ve gone through the east wing.”

He opened the door and got out of
the SUV.  Eloise hurried out after him.

“Paul,” she called. He paused on
the bottom step of the plantation porch and turned to her. She realized that
she didn’t know what to say to him. Did she apologize?  Did she tell him that
she didn’t want him to be angry with her?  Did she plead for understanding?

“I just wanted to say…” she began.

Paul shook his head. “Words don’t
make a difference, Eloise, action does.”

He turned back and went into the
house.

Eloise blinked back the tears and
took a deep breath.  She removed the headband flashlight from her pack, secured
it on her head, clicked it on and followed Paul into the house.

The first floor hallway was a
spider’s web of yellow crime scene tape.  She could hear that Paul was already
upstairs going through the rooms in the east wing. Eloise carefully bent over
and slipped under the tape barricading the lower hall, trying not to touch anything. 
She walked around the staircase, past the ballroom doors and the main dining
room door to a narrow doorway.  The hallway was 20 feet long and was nestled
between the other rooms on the first floor.  At the end of the hall were
several doors, one opened to the narrow steps that led to the servants’
quarters, another led down stairs to the cellar and the last opened to the
kitchen.

The kitchen had originally been
painted white.  Old cupboards from floor to ceiling, with thin wood strips of
paneling, encircled the room.  An old porcelain sink, stained with the iron
residue of dripping water, was situated under the boarded kitchen window.  A
red and white Formica table and vinyl upholstered kitchen chairs, obviously a
remnant from another era, sat in the middle of the room.  Old cracked black and
white linoleum covered the original wood plank floor.

Eloise felt a flash of apprehension
as she entered the kitchen. She saw the footprints in the dust on the floor
near the back door where she and Sally had escaped from Delphine. She could
also see the larger footprints and the scuffle marks that had happened only
yesterday. 

She purposely turned away from
those reminders and opened the cupboard closest to her to begin her
investigation.  

On the inside door of the first
cupboard hung a drugstore calendar from 1930. It was covered with a thick layer
of dust and the corner looked as though a mouse had used it for a snack. The
inside of the first cupboard was fairly empty – Eloise found a couple of old
empty jelly jars, some brittle contact paper and a baby food jar of buttons.

She closed the first door and was
opening the second when she heard the scream.  She felt a rush of déjà vu; she
had heard that sound before. She moved quickly out of the kitchen and up the
back hallway. Trying to find the source of the scream and place where she had
heard it before. She could hear Paul’s footsteps above her as he also responded
to the sound.  Then she remembered - her dream!  That was the scream that had pulled
Jean-Paul away from her and left him injured and strapped to Delphine’s table.

She ran down the rest of the hall
and flung open the narrow door.

“Paul,” she yelled, “Don’t come any
closer.”

But he couldn’t hear her. “Eloise,
where are you?  What’s wrong?” Paul called out from upstairs.

She rushed up the larger hall and
around the back of the staircase.  She heard Paul’s footsteps on the stairs.

“Paul, no!” she cried and watched
in horror as Paul, placing his weight on the rotted step, fell through the
staircase into the cellar below.

Eloise ran back through the
hallways and yanked open the door to the cellar.  The moldy and musty air
washed across her face as she ran down the stairs, her hands braced on either
side of the wall in case she too ran into a rotted step.

“Paul,” she called as she came to
the bottom.

She stepped onto the floor and
skidded for a moment, before catching her balance. The flood waters had
receded, but the dirt-packed floor was now a bog of mud.  Eloise slowly turned
her head, allowing the flashlight beam to traverse the interior of the cellar. 

“Paul,” she called out again.

Then the beam captured something
that glittered.  It was suspended several feet above the ground. She moved
towards it and found that it was Paul’s dog tags, hanging from a splintered
piece of wood. She frantically searched the area and finally saw him, lying
behind several large wooden barrels.  He was face up in the mud, but he was not
moving.

“Paul,” she cried, moving to help
him, her steps hindered by the thick mud.

But before she could reach him to
find out if he was alive, the room lit up with an eerie green-glow and she
heard Delphine’s laughter coming from directly behind her.

Eloise turned. Delphine was less
than a foot away, hovering over the floor. Her eyes were glowing and her black
hair was floating all around her – as if it held an electrical charge.

“So,” she mocked. “It seems that
you were not able to save your dear Jean-Paul this time either.”

Eloise shook his head. “He is not
dead, you can’t hurt him. He’s protected.”

Delphine circled Eloise and smiled,
“Oh, you mean the little amulet that Maria made for him. How unfortunate that
it got caught up on his way down.”

She waved her hand in the direction
of the dog tags that Eloise had examined just moments before. Eloise turned and
saw that Paul’s dog tags also held the small brown amulet.

She turned to Delphine. “You can’t
kill him.”

“Well, whether he lives or dies is
totally up to you,” Delphine said archly, “You want him to live, I want
something from you.”

“What?”

“Before my incompetent great-great-grandson
allowed you to kill him, he told me of a device you had that could summon
spirits,” she said, her eyes glowing with avarice. “I want you to use your
machine for me.”

“No, I can’t do that.”

Delphine shrugged. “It is your
choice.  Your Jean-Paul is still a fine specimen. Perhaps he will be the first
of my zombies.  I would enjoy having him in my power.”

Paul moaned softly.

“He’s still alive,” she whispered.

Delphine floated towards his prone
body.

“I can take care of that too,” she
laughed.

“No, stop!” Eloise decided
desperately, “I’ll use the machine to help you.”

Delphine turned and smiled at
Eloise. “Excellent choice, my dear.”

Eloise turned towards Paul, but
Delphine moved forward and blocked her.

“He is not safe until your machine
brings me what I need.”

Delphine waved her arm and several
old whiskey barrels rolled across the room, separating Eloise from Paul.

“You will not get what you want
until I see for myself that he’s fine.”

“Oh, I think I will,” Delphine
answered. Once again, she waved her arm and the staircase above them started to
creak. “It would be such a shame to have an entire staircase fall on your dear
Jean-Paul.”

Eloise turned on Delphine.  “But I
have to see to him, he’s hurt.  I have to help him.”

Delphine shook her head and smiled
wickedly. “You have helped him, my dear. You have given him his life.”

Delphine glided past her to the
staircase.  Eloise turned back to Paul and saw Maria hovering near him.  Maria
smiled and nodded to Eloise, and then she motioned Eloise to follow Delphine. 
Eloise felt relief course through her – Maria would protect Paul.  She could
concentrate on getting rid of Delphine.

Delphine led Eloise up the stairs
and through the house.  They walked through the house and out to SUV.  Eloise
opened the rear door, pulled out the synthesizer and speakers and set them up
on the porch of the plantation.  Then she hefted the portable generator out and
set it up too.  She attached the cables and wires and switched on the
synthesizer.

She noted that the switches were
still set for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and was tempted to blast it out to
see what Delphine’s reaction would be.  But before she could turn up the
switch, Delphine hovered over to her and whispered menacingly in her ear, “I
will wait and see how this machine of yours works.  If it does not perform
satisfactorily, I will kill your Jean-Paul and his death will not be an easy
one.”

Eloise set the switches to whale
songs and increased the volume to the full. Then she stepped back and, with a
heavy heart, waited for the spirits to walk into Delphine’s trap.

The Humvee, containing Sally and
Turner, pulled up to the clearing where the carriage house used to be. 

“This is a good spot,” Sally said,
smiling at Turner. “Close enough to be useful, far enough to stay hidden.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

They got out of the vehicle and
they could hear the whale song.

“What the heck is that?” Sally
asked, moving to the edge of the wood.

“That’s sounds like Ms. Parker’s
synthesizer, ma’am,” Turner said, “She used it when she was trying to gather
the spirits in that small town.”

“Why would she be using it now?”
Sally wondered aloud, “She wasn’t supposed to be calling the spirits until
after she was able to get rid of Yemanja.”

“Sounds like things aren’t going
according to plan, ma’am,” Turner said,

Sally nodded, “And it looks like
it’s a good thing we decided to follow them.”

Turner shook his head, “Begging
your pardon, ma’am, but we didn’t follow them. We are supplying them with
needed equipment.”

Sally grinned. “And now, let’s bring
that supply down to the plantation.”

They found the narrow path through
the woods and followed it in the direction of the house.

Slowly, but steadily, they started
to arrive.   Eloise watched as a small group of spirits came out from the grove
of pecan trees.  They were walking together, but they weren’t communicating
with each other.  Instead, they seemed to be in a trance-like state, gazing all
in all directions.  Soon, there were spirits coming from every corner of the
plantation descending on the lawn in front of the house. Eloise watched in
dismay as she counted hundreds of spirits gathering together.

Delphine was ecstatic!  “Yes!  Yes!”
she cried, “The power of all of these spirits will be mine.”

Suddenly, Delphine looked up at the
midday sky and cried, “It’s time, I must hurry.”

She glided away in the direction of
the bayou.

Eloise waited a few moments, then
ran to the SUV and pulled out the things that Mary Margaret had given here to
summon Agwe. 

She put the things in a backpack
and followed the direction that Delphine had taken, toward the bayou.