by Lissa Kasey
Micah didn’t try to cross the tape. Though he did examine something that appeared to be scrawled on the side of the tomb. It looked like gibberish to me.
“That the Voodoo stuff?”
“Hoodoo, I think,” Micah said. “I’m not an expert.”
“Any idea what they were trying to do?”
“Open a portal maybe? That sort of seems to always be the Voodoo idea. Open a portal to spirit guides to answer questions, or to the dead to speak with past loved ones, or even demons to learn about the future.”
My heart raced at the idea of demons—put in my head by a childhood growing up in a Southern Baptist Church. “Like fire and brimstone demons?”
“Did you know there really is no such thing as hell in the Bible? Or demons. Just angels. Like the Christian God fucked up with his angels and tried to create humans to replace them, and the two species have been at war ever since,” Micah said. “Lots of books taken out of the Bible by the Catholics who wanted humanity to only believe so much. Most of those removed books are about paranormal stuff including angels who came down to slaughter humans for being created by God.”
“Um… I’d find fighting an angel pretty scary.”
“I think the fear is the point.”
“So they summoned an angel? Or are you saying demons are angels?”
“Yes, and maybe yes? Theory. Philosophy. The point is fear.”
My head spun with the ideas. Too much. And yet, yes it all made me afraid in a way. Of a lot of things. Not the idea of hell, but of something scary out there to kill us for spite? Wasn’t that the concept of humanity? All of our jaded emotions could make humans do things like lie, steal, and murder? “If angels are more fucked up than humans, I think we all really have reason to worry.”
Micah nodded, “Right?”
We stood there in the dark for a minute, the air cool against my skin. I’d forgotten I was still in the kilt, but no one, not even Lukas, had commented. “I don’t see or hear anything.” Still didn’t feel anything odd other than the eerie silence which could have been from standing in the middle of a concrete cemetery on the edge of downtown.
“Let’s look around a little. Jared said they were on their way out when she vanished,” Micah said.
“And she what? Tripped and fell into a giant mausoleum?”
He gave me an irritated stare.
I put my hands up in surrender. “Okay, let’s look.”
“And listen,” Micah said. He led us down a zigzag through the rows, slowly weaving a way through the mostly paved walk, but turning us over the dirt area too. We stopped every couple of feet to listen. I closed my eyes each time, trying to focus on the sounds around us. If there was a girl somehow trapped in a tomb here, would we be able to hear her through all the marble?
In the far corner near the multi-mausoleum thing, Micah stopped since we had a wide view of the area, down several paths, even though it was dark. I closed my eyes, focusing hard to the sounds of the night.
Something faint in the distance made me pop my eyes open and search for it. Was it Lukas? It hadn’t sounded like Lukas, the timbre had been higher, like a woman. “Did you hear that?” I asked Micah.
His gaze was focused in the same direction. “I heard something.”
We headed toward the sound, stopping again after a few feet to see if we heard it again. It was so faint. Not a scream or anything so defined, more a faint moan. We wove our way around and down two other little pathways.
I nearly tripped over my own feet when I saw something move in the distance. “What was that?” I asked Micah pointing in the direction.
A shadow moved. Not our shadows. Was it Lukas? “Did you see that?”
Micah shook his head, frowning. He rubbed his arms like they hurt. “Feel something. My skin is on fire. Did you maybe see Lukas?”
“That was not Lukas we heard unless someone kicked him in the balls.” I heard the faint moan again and decided to race toward the sound. “It’s coming from over there.” I pointed. Someone was hurt. Someone was there and needed help. Instinct pushed me to run faster, despite the uneven ground and rows of scattered stones in my path. The nearly full moon lit enough of the area that I could see where we were going even if it was all darkness and shadow. There were no lights inside the cemetery.
“Sarah?” I called for her. Was she stuck somewhere? After a few days without food or water she’d be pretty weak.
Was she really here? I thought I caught a glimpse of something around the edge of one of the big stone monuments, movement of some kind, not black, but more liquid than I thought a person’s shadow should be. But when I rounded the corner, there was nothing. No shadow, nothing out of place, no Lukas, and no Sarah. I frowned, slowed to a stop and checked the two connecting paths. Nothing.
“Dammit,” I cursed and turned back to find Micah. Only when I found the path I’d run up, he was gone. “Micah?” I called. For a moment I feared he’d gone off to some little corner to search on his own. As I traveled back to where I’d last seen him a feeling of dread built in my chest. He wasn’t there.
“Micah!” I yelled, praying for an answer.
Nothing.
“Fuck!” I ran like a madman then, focused on the search, moving around the cemetery like I was trying to outrun a fire. I took every path, retracing steps and searching every corner. “No, no, no…” The cemetery wasn’t that big. It looked big from the outside, but it really was a big rectangle surrounded by a high white wall. One way in and out. Lots of corners and tombs to hide behind, but he had no reason to hide, and I should have heard him, his steps, his breathing, or even the movement of his clothing.
He was gone.
I heaved for breath, searching the same areas three or four times until my lungs burned, and my side ached from all the running. A dozen times I dialed his phone, praying to hear his phone chime or have him answer, only there was no reply and nothing but silence stretching across the distance.
I found my way back to the gate, praying Micah had made his way out, or maybe even that Lukas had found him and dragged him outside. I panted and felt tears streaming down my face. My brain raced through a thousand horrible options.
Lukas stood with a couple other cops outside the gate. He looked up and waved me over, clearly angry with me. “Where’s Micah?” he demanded.
“No, no, no, no…” I felt every last bit of my resolve vanish in that moment in the realization that he hadn’t come outside to wait for me. “I only left him for a second.” The panic attack that hit me then was almost welcome, as it came so fast and hard that I passed out, blissfully yanked down into a dark place where new boyfriends weren’t stolen by cemetery monsters.
Chapter 24
I came to lying on the sidewalk with a handful of EMTs fussing over me. They had an oxygen mask pressed to my face and while the clean purity of it felt good, my lungs ached. I pushed the mask away and tried to breathe. The lights of police cars lit up the night almost as bright as daytime. Lukas stood nearby, and there were police streaming in and out of the cemetery.
“Lukas?” I called for him. Micah wasn’t in there was he? They hadn’t found him dead too, had they?
Lukas glanced at me, said something to the other detective he was talking to and headed my way.
“Micah?” I asked Lukas the second he got close enough to hear me.
“We’re looking.” His expression was guarded, tired, and sad. “I saw you both go in.”
“He was right behind me. I heard something. Ran toward it, didn’t find anything, but when I turned back, he was gone.” I reached for Lukas’s arm. “Are they looking for him? Did they find him?” Was he dead?
“I’ve got over a dozen cops in there looking for him. Hell, my sergeant thinks I’m nuts, but I have them searching every grave for openings that might have the girl stuck somewhere. If you had waited, neither of you would have been in there.” He ran his hands through his hair. “Fuck, Alex. What happened? When will you fucking listen to
me?”
I flinched. “I didn’t want him to go in there alone.”
“But you couldn’t have convinced him to wait outside with me until we got some units here?”
Tears burned my eyes. “He’s gone. What if he’s gone again…” Maybe not even three months, but forever? I couldn’t bring myself to voice the thoughts. Was it my fault? The day together had been amazing. Small things. Sitting with him while he made projects and worked stuff out in his head. An afternoon nap followed by sweet sex. Dinner and snuggling, time playing with Jet and a laser light while Micah smiled and watched from his place on the futon. For a few hours I’d felt normal, like there was a chance to find happiness even though we were both a little weird.
“Don’t freak out, okay?” Lukas said. “Tell me what you remember and the last time you saw him. I’ve got people looking.”
The EMT pressed something cold to my cheek. It hurt. I must have fallen and landed on my face again. At least I didn’t seem to be bleeding. The cold pack helped ground me even while my mind raced in a million directions.
“You with me?” Lukas asked.
“Trying,” I said, fighting down the panic. “You have to find him.”
“We’re looking, now tell me what you remember.”
I closed my eyes and gave him everything. Detail by detail from the second we entered the cemetery, from finding writing on the side of the open crypt, to not hearing bugs, and following shadows. I recalled details this time around that I hadn’t before. The shapes of certain graves, the sound of Micah behind me as I ran toward that last shadow, and the abrupt silence. He had turned down another path, I realized. Having felt or heard something he hadn’t shared. It had only taken a few seconds. When I finished the retelling, I bowed my head to my knees and sobbed. He was gone. Something had taken him like it had taken Sarah.
Lukas’s sigh was deep and tired. “Can I have someone take you home to my place? I’d feel better if I knew you were home safe.”
“I need to find Micah.”
“And I have people looking for him.”
“That worked out really well, last time, right?” I threw back at him feeling the need to hurt because I felt like I was bleeding inside. That quickly Micah had become important enough to me, to make me bleed when he’d been ripped away. Fuck. “Sorry. That was an asshole thing to say, and I didn’t mean it.”
Lukas took my face in his hands and made me look at him. “Stop. All this shit in your head. Stop. I thought you’d help each other, not tear each other up.”
“You didn’t expect him to go missing again.” But I had feared it from the moment I heard that thing in his garden.
“Let me have someone walk you home. Get some rest.”
I pulled away and stumbled to my feet, feeling a little unsteady still from the panic attack. “Maybe he got by us somehow and went home?”
“I already sent officers that way to see if he was there, and I have his cameras linked to my phone, remember? So do you.” Lukas reminded me.
I nodded and backed away. “I’m going to go check.”
Lukas frowned at me. “Alex…”
“It’s okay. I’m going to check his house and head home.”
“Promise me,” Lukas demanded. “His place and then home. I’ll send cops around to check on you.”
“Sure,” I said, not really promising anything.
“Alex,” Lukas called after me.
“I’m fine.”
“I need you safe.”
But I was safe. Something had taken Micah and probably Sarah, leaving me behind. It was Micah who wasn’t safe. “I’m going to Micah’s. I might wait for him there.” I walked away from Lukas, ignoring his protests and pulled up the video on my phone. I headed down toward the Quarter. It was a bit of a walk, but not horrible. It gave me time to search the cameras’ past feed for any sign of anything odd. I watched the video of Micah from last night. How he sat in the garden, tense with fear, while nothing happened. He seemed angry with himself when he finally went inside.
Then from the past few hours I saw us leave on camera, but nothing afterward, not even the orange tabby that had been visiting his yard previously. No sign of Micah. I didn’t head toward his house or even Lukas’s. Jared’s words replayed in my head. All this over some stupid ring. What the fuck were they even thinking? Would the police even know what to search for in Mary’s shop? Her place had been filled with clutter; how would they even know?
I turned in that direction instead and wondered how I would know if I found it. Would it glow? Was there even a ring? And why would a dead person care? They couldn’t take money with them to the other side. Maybe it was some sort of magic thing. Was magic real or simply a state of mind? I wasn’t qualified to make those philosophical leaps, though my brain did try.
A few blocks away I saw smoke and my stomach lurched in worry. For a moment I thought it might be from the LaLaurie mansion again. Only it was the wrong direction. The flashing of lights as I neared pushed me to run. Fire poured from a row of shops, centered on Mary’s Voodoo place, but spreading outward. The man who owned the shop next door to Mary’s stood there looking heartbroken as he spoke to a police officer. Firefighters worked on the blaze trying to keep it from spreading further.
I noticed another woman standing away from the crowd of gawkers, and vaguely remembered her from that first day in the shop. Abigail. I made a beeline for her. She barely glanced my way before I planted myself in front of her, and unlike the man who owned the shop next door, she didn’t look upset by the blaze.
“Was the ring in there? Or whatever your aunt took from that grave?” I demanded of her.
She frowned at me. “Who are you?”
“Alexis Caine. I work with Micah. I need that ring.”
She waved her hand at the blaze. “Everything is gone.”
“Did you set the fire?”
“Fires happen a lot here,” was all she said. “I’m not sorry to see it go, though I do feel bad for the neighbors.”
I could have strangled her at the very thought of it. Was the chance to get Micah back burning to ash right that second? “What did they do at the grave?”
Abigail shrugged. “It never worked. I knew it wouldn’t work. That was why I didn’t go. Aunt Mary, that wasn’t her real name, wanted proof that she was related to the last remaining LaLaurie. She wanted the Mansion to use it as a tourist attraction.”
I tried to make sense of that. “Wait, so the woman that died was a LaLaurie?” The name hadn’t been the same. And from what I remembered of the cemetery there wasn’t a tomb that was specific to the LaLauries. Or maybe that had been to keep the vandalism down.
“Married half a dozen times and tried to bury her lineage. Mary and I were supposedly related too, but I don’t need that legacy, thanks. Bunch of psychos. She thought if they could prove lineage then they could go to court and get the mansion. Strong Catholic woman didn’t believe in cremation, but if they left her in the grave long enough the heat would do it for her. Marc thought if they could get DNA they could test. They thought it would make them rich. Mary requested a DNA test lots of times, but that old bitch wasn’t having it. Now that she’s dead, they figured they could take it.”
I gaped at her. “What the fuck is wrong with you people?”
Abigail shrugged. “Not me. I didn’t want it. That family is cursed and I want no part of it.”
“So there’s no ring?” I clarified. “They took a bone or something from the grave?” How gross was that. That they would take something from a newly dead body for a DNA test. The entire thing made me seethe with anger. Sarah and Micah were missing because someone wanted control over a haunted house? “All of this over a fucking house?”
“That place makes the new owners a fortune. And I don’t know what ring they’d be talking about. I know they wanted to open a portal to a guide that would help them get back the rights or something. It was always some mystic bullshit with them. Spirit guides and portals. I hate
this city and its paranormal crap.” Abigail looked away. “Mary said she’d give Marc a cut of the earnings. Not me, of course, because I was her niece and she expected me to help. Except I didn’t show up for their little ceremony killing chickens and squirrels.” She glared into the flames. “I’m done with all of this. The mystical bullshit, death, ghosts, and all of it. I want a normal life. Let it all burn.”
I stared at her for a minute, a thousand thoughts swimming for foothold and only one thing finding its way up. Micah. I needed to get him back.
The shop began to collapse inward, the fire eating through enough of the structure to cave the roof in. The sound of sirens and flashing lights seemed to give me a moment of suspended animation as I stood there, lost and unsure what to do. The chance of getting Micah back was very likely going up in flames, even if I’d known what to search for to begin with. I turned away from the fire, headed somewhere, though I wasn’t sure exactly where in that moment.
I thought about heading to the river, even briefly about throwing myself in and letting the water take me. But where would that leave Micah and Lukas? Even if Micah never returned, Lukas would forever blame himself for not insisting someone walk me home. I sighed, so lost in thought I didn’t realize I had wandered back to Micah’s place until I stood at the door. I didn’t have a key to get in. Did Lukas have one? We’d have to get Jet and take care of him until Micah reappeared. If he reappeared.
I sat down under the tree, heart heavy, lost in confusion, and so alone that it hurt to breathe. What if he was gone forever? We barely knew each other. It shouldn’t hurt this much, my rational brain told me. Rational didn’t matter much in ways of the heart. Was I in love with Micah? This soon? It sounded more like a romance novel than possible reality. But how else could I explain the tightness in my chest at the thought of him being gone forever. A few days wasn’t long enough, not to love him or to lose him.