"So, do you feel any different now?"
"Funny you should ask, because I was just thinking that I don't really. I mean, I can still feel the tingle the gods left behind as they coursed through me during the ceremony, but other than that, I feel like the same Seraphine I've always been."
"You don't seem like the same Seraphine to me." I looked over at Stephen, mesmerized by him the way I always am. He smiled and brushed the hair back from his face. "When I first saw you in class, you were this quiet girl who I could never have imagined being a voodoo priestess. I mean, I thought you were just a bookworm or something. I didn't really know what to think." He looked away for a moment, staring up at the same moon, so full of promise for what tomorrow would bring. "Then I met you as the voodoo practitioner that raised my best friend from the grave. And man, that was intense. I remember thinking what kind of a powerful person must she be to do something like that?" I started to protest, but Stephen just shushed me. "No, Seraphine. I mean it and you were powerful, beyond what I ever could have imagined. I felt this pull towards you after that. I don't think I can do the explanation justice, but I just knew that I couldn't walk away from you." He smiled again, looking back at me. I wondered in that moment what he saw, because I was sitting in the middle of the grass, in a white dress, with blood marking my face, and my hair frizzed out worse than usual on top while the bottom layers were damply clinging to my neck and face thanks to the hot, humid air. He smiled at me, and looked for all the world like he wanted to kiss me in that moment. Maybe it was just what I wanted, but I hoped he felt the same. "Seraphine, I know you're worried about what will happen tomorrow. And no matter what happens, I want you to know that the very best part of my life has been the after life I've gotten to spend with you." His hair fell into his eyes again and I reached up to push it back out of the way. not thinking. "Maybe one day soon, you will be able to actually do that," he said as he pushed it back himself. "I have complete faith in you, Seraphine."
"That's what scares me more than anything." I dropped my hand down to my lap and looked back up at the moon. "
"Seraphine," Stephen started, before I cut him off.
"Stephen, I... "
"Seraphine, your phone keeps ringing non-stop. I couldn't bring it to you, but I think you should check on it. It's Tina." Trevor had appeared out of nowhere. He had gone to the house when the ceremony was over because I had asked to be left alone for a few minutes. He did not look happy to see Stephen out here with me.
"I'll go get it," I said, getting up from the grass. I looked back at Stephen one last time and saw the disappointment there. He was none to happy about the interruption. I was torn, because on the one hand, I didn't want to say out loud what I had been about to for fear that it would cause everything to go haywire tomorrow. On the other hand, I wanted to tell Stephen exactly how I felt, just in case I didn't get another chance.
I walked back to the house with a pissed off looking Trevor and a sullen Stephen. I didn't know which was worse, but both were getting under my skin. I grabbed up the cell phone as soon as I got to it. The moment the phone was in my hands it was ringing, so I picked it up without even thinking.
"What is the problem now, Tina?" I said into the phone without even looking at it.
"Well, I would say it has something to do with the corpse in the hospital." It was Vampire Dave.
"Corpse?" I asked without thinking about my audience.
"NO!" Stephen cried out.
"That's right. I thought, for all the trouble I have gone through, you should know a small taste of it. I killed the boy, what's his name again?" Seraphine could hear papers being rustled on the other end of the phone, "Ahhh, yes, Trevor. Mr. Daniels no longer has a body to go back to or to give up for his little ghost friend."
Trevor was staring at me in awe, while Stephen had collapsed to the floor utterly defeated.
"Get me that cure, or the witch will be joining your cast of ghostly friends. I know you're not that fond of the witch, so my voodoo queen, let it be known that I will not stop there. I will not stop until every person you ever cared about has joined your little death squad that follows you around." I wasn't sure I could continue to stand on my own. Thoughts of my family, dead, were flashing through my mind. "You have exactly one week, and then I come to collect." The line went dead and I just stood there staring at my phone while Trevor paced back and forth and Stephen was a crumpled heap on the floor.
"I don't feel any different. I think I would know if my body had died. I still feel sort of tied to the world of the living." Trevor was pacing back and forth as he talked. "I don't think he really did it."
"Seraphine! Seraphine, come here, quickly." It was Auntie Perrine yelling from the other room.
We all ran into the parlor and saw the television. There was a report about a gruesome murder in a Baltimore hospital. Someone had killed a boy who had been in a coma. The name of the victim had yet to be released.
"It can't be, I'm telling you I don't feel any different." Trevor was saying.
I realized my cell was ringing again. I answered it, thinking that it would be Vampire Dave, gloating again. I was wrong. "Seraphine, don't panic." It was Tina. "I took care of everything. He didn't get the right boy. It wasn't Trevor." I was hearing the words as if I were in a tunnel. The words were there, but nothing was coming in clear.
"What?"
"Seraphine, can you hear me?"
"Yeah," I said absently.
"It wasn't Trevor!" Tina was nearly yelling into the phone now. "I moved him. I switched him with a boy they were getting ready to pull the plug on. I figured he was going to be dead anyway, so it wouldn't matter." There was quiet on the phone, as I tried to get the information to sink in. "It wasn't Trevor," she repeated.
"It wasn't Trevor." I said out loud. Trevor looked over at me and Stephen looked up, waiting to hear more.
"Put it on speaker phone Sera," Trevor was saying. I think I listened and did what he asked, because Tina started talking louder now.
"I moved him... switched with another boy... Trevor's body is fine... another room." The state my brain was in left me hearing only small portions of what was being said.
"Seraphine!" My Auntie Perrine's voice came through loud and clear and I looked over at her. "Tell me what is going on, now."
I had to fill my Auntie in on the vampire situation. To her credit, she took it a lot better than I thought she would. She also made sure to take care of Tina, when it appeared I could not. Arrangements were made for Tina to fly here tomorrow, so that she would at least be with us away from the Vampire. Auntie also called my mom and warned her. Then, she turned on me. "Seraphine Rose LaLande, I can not believe you didn't tell me about this. What were you thinking? Trying to deal with a vampire on your own. My Gods... you could have been killed. You all could have been killed."
"We need to do the ceremony before the vampire figures out what Tina's done."
"No." My auntie argued, "we can not do it tonight. Joshua won't be here until tomorrow. We need three priests or priestesses to conduct the ritual."
"We have to, you heard Tina. She switched Trevor with a boy who's family will be pulling the plug tomorrow. What happens when they don't figure out the switch occurred? What happens when they pull the plug on the wrong boy?"
"Seraphine, it is too dangerous."
"Everything happens for a reason. You told me that. So, what if the reason is to speed things up?"
"And what if the reason is because this wasn't meant to be?" My Auntie countered. She had a point, but it was one I didn't want to hear.
"Auntie Perrine, we must do this tonight. I can feel it in my bones. I will try without you if you don't want to help, but I would rather do it with you."
"Oh, Seraphine." My Auntie looked absolutely defeated. "Fine," she agreed. "Get everything together and meet me at the alter out back."
***
Everything Altered
We were all standing near the alter in my Auntie's ba
ck yard. I made a large protective circle around all of us and then two smaller circles in front of the alter that surrounded Stephen and Trevor. Trevor's ghost was the embodiment of his living being, while Stephen was the soul looking for a host. We had the three circles set, the supplies were all where they needed to be, myself and my Auntie Perrine standing on opposite sides of the alter, the only thing we were missing was the third priest who should have been at the center of the alter across from the boys to invoke the rites we would perform here and lend power to the transference. Instead my Auntie and I would be invoking the rite together and then praying that we had enough juice between us to get the job done. Everyone within the larger circle had the sense to look nervous except Stephen, who simply looked anxious to get where he wanted to go. His confidence in me, in us, was astounding and hopefully not unfounded.
"We implore the Loa to hear us, to be with us tonight under this moon so bright and full of potential," my Auntie Perrine and I chanted together. We both raised our ceremonial daggers up, extended both of our arms above our heads, there we pricked our left fingers with the tip of the blade and slung our arms forward, spraying the blood that pooled at our fingertips across the alter. The circle surrounding all of us lit up and began to glow, a steady, but pale comparison of the moonlight that washed over all of us.
"We implore the Loa to guide the spirits tonight, that they might hear their wishes and do what must be done." Again our arms were raised, the daggers had switched to our opposite hands and we followed through with the same steps as before, this time releasing the blood from our right hands across the alter.
I was hoping that the boys remembered to keep their thoughts focused at this point in the ceremony because it was crucial. Stephen was to think of nothing but finding a home inside Trevor's empty body. He was to think of filling the empty vessel with himself and becoming the boy who's ghost stood watching him. For Trevor's part he was to think of relinquishing his body to Stephen. He was to remember and visualize the freedom he felt as an Unknown spirit and embrace that feeling. This was how the gods would know what to do with them. We could not tell the gods ourselves. My Auntie Perrine and I had a very specific part to play, scripted down to the very words we could mutter. We were the magic, the catalyst to get them where they wanted to be. They were the vessels with the thoughts to take them there.
My auntie and I began circling the alter, chanting the words that would bring the Loa back into our midst. I felt them this time when they entered. They were a bit weary, almost as if they did not want to be here helping their priestesses do this work. I saw as Auntie Perrine came to the same conclusion, a moment of panic flashed across her face, which I calmed with a small smile. I continued chanting and so did she. We walked thrice around the alter and then to the spirits that stood facing one another. We both cut our hands simultaneously reaching through the circles that now engulfed each spirit in a bright white light. "My blood for your life, my blood for your spirit, my blood for your travels, and my blood for your freedom." Auntie Perrine reached through and touched Stephen at the same time that I touched Trevor. I wanted to be the one to send Stephen on his way, but Auntie Perrine talked me out of it at the last moment. She said that she should be the one to push for Stephen to go into the body, because it would take so much more effort, and that having been a priestess for many years longer, she was more equipped.
I have never doubted my auntie before, but in that moment, I knew I should have been the one to send Stephen through and not her. "My blood to bring you," we both finally said and then there was large, hot white flash of light, and nothing.
I started panicking a little, because I was blinded by the flash of light. My eyes wouldn't adjust and there were a few tense minutes where I thought I had lost my sight. It started coming back a little at a time. That's when I felt the hands wrapping around me, trying to pull me up to my feet. "Whoa," I said, "That was intense. I still can't see yet."
"It takes some time to adjust." It was Trevor's voice I was hearing. He was so close, I could feel the hands on me still, "Seraphine, open your eyes now." He sounded like he was right there with me. The excitement inside me began building. I thought I knew what happened now. None of us ever suspected that Trevor's body would be transported to us. We had made arrangements for Stephen to call us from Baltimore if it worked. Tina had left a disposable phone with Trevor's body when we asked her to. This was so much better. I wouldn't have to wait to see him now. Once my sight came all the way back that was.
"Oh wow, it worked," I said as I tossed my arms out and jumped forward to hug him. "It worked!"
"Yeah, I think it did, but Seraphine..."
"No! I don't want to hear anything negative, it worked and we are going to celebrate, just as soon as I can see something." I opened my eyes again and strained them a bit, trying to see the world around me. It all started coming into focus again, fuzzy at first, and then it began to clear and sharpen. I was indeed in the arms of Trevor, or at least his body. That realization made me hug onto him tighter. "I can't believe it worked."
"Seraphine..." His voice trailed off as a phone started ringing. I let go and turned around, looking for the phone. That was when I saw Auntie Perrine on the ground, crying. She crawled to the phone that had apparently been flung onto the grass and she picked it up, immediately hitting the speaker button.
"Oh my God, it worked!" Came Trevor's voice from the phone. "Seraphine, it worked! I told you it would. You are amazing. I can't wait to be able to see you, and touch you."
"Stephen," my Auntie Perrine began to say, "it's Perrine."
"Perrine? Where's Seraphine?" I stared at my aunt and watched as she looked from the splotch of grass in front of her to the fallen lump of a body on the ground beside me. Then I looked up at Trevor, who was standing beside me, still holding onto my hand.
"What's going on?" I said as I took another look around. Stephen was gone, Trevor was holding my hand, my auntie was talking on the phone to someone who sounded like Trevor, and my body was laying on the ground beside me.
"Stephen, she's gone."
"What do you mean, she's gone? Did she get excited and leave already?"
"No, she's gone," my auntie began wailing and dropped the phone. She crawled over to my body and scooped me up in her arms. "Oh, my baby girl..."
"NOooo" The guttural scream that came through the phone was a primal one. Stephen realized what had happened at just about the same time that it finally sunk in for me.
"No, no, no." I was beyond worried now. "This can't be happening," I turned to Trevor, "why is this happening?" I forced his hand off mine when he wouldn't let go and I ran over to my Auntie Perrine and my own body. I tried to lay down, to put myself back in, but it wasn't working.
"It won't work, Seraphine." Trevor was coming towards me, with such a sad look on his face. "I'm so sorry."
Trevor went over to the cell phone that had been abandoned on the ground and kicked it towards Perrine. She looked up for a moment, then back down at the cell phone. Then she got angry. "What do you want me to do with that?" She was screaming and uncontrollable, a side of my aunt that I had never seen before. "My Seraphine is gone now, so the two of you could have what you wanted and you would ask more of me?" Auntie Perrine picked up the cell phone, and shut it, effectively hanging up on Stephen if he was even still there, and then she threw it in the direction it had been kicked from. It probably would have gone right through Trevor, but he made it bounce off of him instead.
"Why are you tormenting my Aunt?" I asked.
"I'm not doing it torment her, Seraphine. We need to make sure Stephen gets out of the hospital."
"Why? He's safe now, they can't pull the plug if he's up and making phone calls,now can they?"
"They may not be able to, but have you forgotten about our good old friend, Vampire Dave?"
"Oh my god, Stephen!" I thought about Dave's threats that he would make us all pay. "What do we do?"
"We go there now, and make sure he
gets out."
"How are we supposed to do that? He won't be able to see us."
"What about your mom? She will be."
"First of all, I don't know where my mom and Roger went to hide. And secondly, how do you think she would take seeing me pop up to her? Do you think that's the way she will want to hear about her daughter's death?"
"I'm sorry, Seraphine, I didn't think about that."
"Apparently not."
"Well, let's go and see if I can get Stephen's attention by throwing things around the room or something."
"I don't even know how to do it. How do we get there?"
"Take my hand Sera, I'll get us there."
***
A Light in the Dark
Dizziness swept over me as Trevor and I stopped. I'm not quite sure how to describe our travels, other than it was like moving super fast through a swamp. Everything felt thick, almost like it was trying to block our path, but at the same time we moved from New Orleans to Baltimore in seconds. The minute the room stopped spinning I looked around and saw the Trevor that was holding my hand still and the Trevor that was screaming and crying on the bed in front of us.
"Stephen!" I yelled, as I realized that it must be him in Trevor's body. He didn't hear me, he didn't look up, so I got closer and watched as he shivered violently. That got his attention. He looked up from the bed and right through me.
"Seraphine?" He croaked out through a hoarse voice. My heart broke. Everything in me broke. I wanted to go to him, to hold him, and tell him everything would be okay. I wanted to bring him comfort, even though I wasn't sure how I felt about my situation.
I wasn't sure how to let him know I was there. Trevor was though. He slid the chair beside me a few inches. And Stephen lost it, "Oh my God, Seraphine! If I had known what would happen, I would have never let you do this." He buried his face in his hands and continued mumbling through his tears, "How could I have done this? How could I have been so selfish?"
VooDoo Follies Page 14
