Echoes in the Bayou (25 page)

"I
thought she'd get better but listen, Kelly is there and like you said, she'll
take good care of her so let's get through the meeting tomorrow so we can head
back here, the sooner I'm back the better I'll feel."

"Sounds
good buddy but mind if I ask you a
question?" Steve asked.

"Ask
away.
"

"It's
just that… I mean what do you know about this Sinta woman? How do you know she's
not pulling some kind of scam on you to try and get you and Ava out of that
house. I hate to say it buddy but the woman just
appeared, I mean don’t you find that rather odd?"

"Are
you kidding me Steve? This whole situation is odd. But you wouldn’t be saying
that if you knew what I've seen and Ava trusts Sinta so that's good enough for
me."

"Well…"
He said
, he knew he was going to have to tread
lightly on this next question.

"That
brings me to my next question, I mean Ava is a great girl and all but what do
you really know about her? She came into your life at the precise moment that
you needed her, is that a
coincidence or
something else? And don’t get mad I'm just putting it out there is all. Like I
said, Ava is a great girl and any guy would be lucky to have her."

Magnus
was getting irritated now, making accusations against Sinta was one thing, but
now he was accusing Ava of being up to something and he was not about to have
that.

"Steve,
you're talking about the woman I love so if I were you, I'd quit while I was
ahead," he warned
.

"Look
Magnus, I'm not trying to start anything, all I'm saying is that don’t
you find it strange that all these occurrences start
happening when Ava arrives? I mean you never had any problems before right? Why
all of a sudden now? Who's to say that Ava and Sinta aren’t in this thing
together you know? Trying to take you for all you're worth, hey buddy you
wouldn’t be the first guy who got blinded by love and you won't be the last."

He'd had
enough. "If you're finished Steve, let me explain a few things to you,
first off Ava doesn’t need my money, she has her own. And as far as Sinta is
concerned, yes you're right she appeared out of nowhere. But I can safely say
that the woman has come to Ava's aid more than once and she's done nothing but
be supportive, without Sinta Ava and I would be lost.

And to
answer your question of whether or not I've had this happen before, the answer
is yes. As a matter of fact I have." Magnus went on to tell his agent
about the couple who had visited the house in the hopes of  making an
offer but before the realtor could even show them the inside, the older
gentleman got violently ill and the woman was slapped hard in the face.
"Now you can call it coincidence but I call it supernatural and if you weren’t
so busy thinking the worst of people, you would see that Ava is the one for me.
So the next time you want to accuse someone of something you better have proof
to back it up, now do I make myself clear?"

"Perfectly,"
Steve said. The rest of the ride into New Orleans was silent, Magnus was lost
in his thoughts and Steve was too embarrassed to say anything more.

"Things
seem to be getting pretty intense between you and Magnus," Kelly smiled
and took a sip of tea. "Have you guys been talking about maybe taking
things to the next level?"

She shook
her head. "I gu
ess in an abstract way I
thought that marriage and having a family was somewhere in my future, but the
only contender was Gavin and I told you how that turned out. I mean we looked
at rings once but I told him that I wasn’t ready. It's funny because it was
right about the time that I told him I wasn’t ready that he started his affair
with Melanie, he was playing me all along," she laughed bitterly.

"He
may have tried to play you Ava, but look where you are now and who you're with,
you're with someone who truly loves you. You can't ask for more than that. And
once we get this curse thing taken care of you and Magnus can start to live a
normal life, maybe by then you'll be more than ready to talk about taking the
next step," she winked at her friend.

"Now
tell me about this séance you want to have, I brought my Ouija board," she
grinned
.

For days
after the nightmare, Ava couldn’t get it out of her mind. Magnus had been
supportive and comforting and though she promised him that she wouldn’t read
the diary, she made no promises that she wouldn’t have a séance. So when she
texted Kelly asking her if she'd be a willing participant, she felt good
knowing that she had kept her promise to Magnus.

And when
Kelly responded with an
enthusiastic yes, she
thought to herself,
what Magnus doesn’t
know won't hurt him.
Kelly had even gone
so far as to have visited a local novelty shop where she purchased a handmade
Ouija board for the occasion.

"Well
I was thinking that since I promised Magnus that I wouldn’t read the diaries,
that you and I would hold ourselves a little séance and see if we can't connect
with Will again. Except this time I want to be able to tell him exactly what
happened and who killed his Celeste."

Kelly c
ouldn’t conceal the excitement that she was feeling,
nor did she want to.

"Sounds
good to me, when do you want to get started?" She asked. She hoped that it
would be soon, the anticipation was driving her crazy, she'd never used an
Ouija board before let
alone preform a séance,
and she could hardly wait.

 
"Well I think we should do it tonight, as soon as
it gets dark we'll start and see if we can squash this curse once and for
all," she smiled a smile that showed more than a glimmer of hope.

"Magnus
I'm fine." He'd called her to make sure that she was alright. It was
almost completely dark out and he and Steve had just gotten back from having a
late dinner.

"I
was worried about you," he said with sincerity. "When I left this
afternoon, you seemed so distraught. I wanted to forget all about the meeting
and stay with
you,
make sure that you
were okay."

She loved
listening to the sound of his voice, but not at this moment. It was time to
start setting up for the séance and she wanted to get everything ready.

"I
love you and I'll be alright. As a matter of fact, Kelly and I were just about
to settle down and watch a movie
," She lied
to him. "But we'll see you tomorrow though right?" She asked.

"Yes
as soon as my meeting is done, Steve and I are going to head back, I love you
too. Have fun," he said before hanging up the phone
.

 
 "See buddy? I told you she'd be okay, Kelly
is going to keep her occupied with wine and movies, you'll see. By the time we
get back there tomorrow she'll be back to her old self, calm, cool, and
collected."

"I
hope you're right Steve, I hope you're right." And he silently hoped that
Sinta would be around to keep a watc
hful eye on
things.

But Sinta
was nowhere near the old plantation, she was at the grave site of Sophie Laveau,
the Creole practitioner of Voodoo that was renowned in New Orleans. Sinta had
met Sophie centuries ago and the two held a strong bond back when Sinta worked
as a field slave at the Montieu Plantation. When Sinta was bought and sold to
William Montieu Senior, she was but fifteen years old. The slave auction was
the last time that she saw her family, they'd been sold off to another
plantation. Soon after, a much older woman named Marie who worked on the
plantation took Sinta under her wing and began teaching her about the Voodoo
religion and it would be several years before she would be able to call herself
a Voodoo priestess.

Sophie L
aveau was born free. Her mother was creole and her
father was a white plantation owner. After her first husband died, Sophie
became a hairdresser who catered to wealthy white families, that was how she
met Sinta.

After
Sophie would finish catering to Miss Amelia, she'd boldly walk into the slave
quarters that stood over a half mile away from the main house. While Sinta kept
a look out, Sophie would continue where her teacher had left off and it wasn’t
until she was in her twenties that she earned the title of Voodoo practitioner.
Sophie had taught her how to request reincarnation by asking the strongest loa
for guidance. She also taught her how to conjure and perform various rituals
and before long, she found herself bombarded by requests from the other slaves,
including Celeste. But Celeste had been like a daughter to Sinta and she now
needed help in freeing the young woman.

It is
said that when Sophie passed, she appeared to Sinta under the guise of a dream.
She told her that no matter what, she would always be there for her and that
all she would have to do was preform a ritual invoking her spirit or loa and
she would come. But then she also warned Sinta that if she was called upon, the
circumstances would have to be dire and there would have to be no other
alternatives. "I has no other alternative Miss Sophie, I needs your help.
You da only one can help Miss Ava now. She about to go into da darkness and it
gonna take both me and you to bring her back into da light," Sinta quietly
said and began the ritual.

Chapter
Eighteen

"Everything
is all set," Ava said and smiled at her friend. They were in the sitting
room and she had just finished lighting the last of the candles.

"This
is going to be so much fun," Kelly said and
laid the Ouija board across the table.  Ava thought that the Ouija board
would come in handy, she couldn’t fully remember what kind of ritual Sinta had
performed to invoke Will's spirit and she wouldn’t have to try. The Ouija board
would do it all for them, all they had to do was place their hands upon the
hand carved wooden planchette and wait for it to start moving. She hoped that
she would ask the right questions and that either Will or Celeste would provide
the correct answers.

"If
Will appears tonight I'm going to tell him that John DuPonte raped and murdered
his Celeste and that his mother set the whole thing up," Ava revealed to
Kelly.

"I
think that's a good idea, that ought to get the ball ro
lling," she said rubbing her hands together in excitement.

"Well,
no time like the present," Ava said and together they placed their hands
on the planchette
.

It didn’t
take long for it to start moving, in fact Ava had barely finished asking if
anyone was there when it started to move quite erratically across the smooth
wooden board. As the spirit board began to spell out Will's name, and with some
gentle coaxing from Kelly, Ava began to speak out loud to Will and tell him
that his mother was responsible for Celeste's death. A cold chill began to
slowly filter into the room, at first they thought it was the air conditioner,
maybe it had developed a mind of its own and had turned on but that wasn’t it.
This cold was a damp, eerie cold that chilled them both to their core.

"Maybe
we ought to stop," Ava whispered, she wished at that moment that she had
taken Magnus's advice and left well enough alone. She could feel that someone
or something was coming into the room, maybe it was already there.

"Are
you kidding?
Things are just getting good Ava
come on, don’t be afraid. Besides it's Will, he won't hurt you."

"Kelly
look." Ava drew her friend's attention back to the spirit board and the
two sat in awe as they watched the planchette move more violently across the
board. "A," they repeated each letter that the planchette was
pointing to. By the end of the sentence, the planchette had spelled out the
words,
Ava
needs to die
.

Before
Ava could react, a stifling
, and foul odor
filled the room and with it came the unearthly spirit of Amelia Montieu.

Ava
wanted to scream out to Kelly but found that she had been robbed of her own
voice. Kelly sat petrified and in fear as she watched the foul soul enter Ava's
body. Her chest rose with a sudden and sharp jerk and in an instant had relaxed
itself back to normal. She could see everything that was going on around her
and she watched helplessly as the tears began to stream down Kelly's face as
she screamed for her to come back before fainting. Ava was trapped, Amelia
Montieu had taken possession of her.  She knew that it was only a matter
of time before Amelia would find a way to kill her.

Each
scream weakened her and she soon found herself shut out and left alone in the
darkest corner of her mind. One final, ear splitting scream escaped her mouth
before the darkness overtook her. Five minutes later, Kelly awoke to the sound
of Ava's voice. "Wake up sugar', time to wake up." She was gently
tugging on her and brushing the hair away from her face. When Kelly looked at
her, it finally registered what had happened only moments before and she
listened as Ava spoke.