VooDoo Follies

by Butler, Christine M.

  "So, I've screwed up a spell for you twice trying to clean up what Tina did, and now you want me to try to fix things again?" I couldn't believe this vampire could possibly be this big of a moron.

  "You will do it right, or I will make sure neither of your guardians is ever able to return to a body."

  I knew in an instant his plan was to kill Trevor, not the ghost Trevor, but his body so it couldn't be used. "You were listening to their conversation at the house that night."

  "Of course I was." He cocked his head to the side, looking at each of us and then laughed, "and it never occurred to any of you because you are all silly little teenagers, no matter what shell you've been put in."

  "Again, I say, why would you want me to do this? I have screwed it up twice."

  "There is no one else. Witches are in short supply around here. At least ones with training and experience." He smiled, "besides, you are going to partake in your ceremony to become a High Priestess of Voodoo, are you not?" The look of shock on my face was obviously evident by the one of satisfaction that crossed his. "Yes, I know about that too. You will go and receive the blessings of a High Priestess, then you will have the power to do this correctly. If you refuse, I will see to it that your friend doesn't get to keep his shell."

  With that, the Vampire was gone. He disappeared back through the window he had obviously crawled into. My cell phone was ringing again.

  "Hello?"

  "Don't worry, I have a plan." It was Tina.

  "You have a what? No. You've drug us into this mess with you, and I am done. I am going to New Orleans, we will figure something out, and I don't want you meddling in any of it." I hung up.

  "Didn't you at least want to hear her plan?" Trevor asked.

  "No." I said, "now I need to get some sleep, so the two of you need to go somewhere else or be quiet." I decided it wasn't worth it to wait for food. Sleep seemed more welcoming. Tomorrow, I would get on the road to New Orleans and try to figure everything else out along the way.

  ***

  The VooDoo Follies

  Part Four: The Ceremony

  Original Publication Date:

  Oct. 4, 2011

  I am Seraphine LaLande, and I am no longer in training. My ceremony is set. I will ascend to the ranks of Voodoo Priestess,, and then I will help one of the boys I love gain a body while allowing the other to shed his completely.

  My heart is still torn between Stephen and Trevor.

  The Voodoo ritual that will set them both free is also a constant in my thoughts. If I mess this one up, there won't be any going back. I could lose them both, forever.

  I could lose them anyway, thanks to my meddling in the affairs of a vampire. Now, he's hell bent on destroying the one thing that will make this ritual go off without a hitch. All I keep thinking is, 'how will I live with myself if this doesn't work?'

  Maybe the better question would have been, what happens if I don't live through this?

  ***

  Heading Home

  I pulled up to the old French Colonial house that was the heart of New Orleans. My family had never been rich. The house had been an inheritance that each generation had to scrape by to hang on to. I took off from Rosedale thinking about this house and now I was so tired after all that driving that I was seeing double when it finally came into view.

  I pulled into the drive and threw the car in park before I did any damage with it. The front door of the house swung open and my Auntie Perrine stepped out. That was all it took to wake me up and jump start something inside of me. I flew out of the car yelling, "Auntie Perrine!" I ran to her and wrapped my arms around her. "I missed you so much!"

  "I've missed you too!" She pulled away from me, examining everything, even lifting a strand of my hair to see how long it had really gotten. "You are a different person now," she finally said.

  "It hasn't grown that much," I said, playing nervously with my hair now.

  "No, but you have. Look at that aura. It says you have grown." My Auntie smiled that perfect white smile of hers at me. "This is the aura of a high priestess," she proclaimed before pulling me into another hug.

  When we finally parted again Auntie Perrine looked around and asked, "So, where are these boys of yours?"

  "What?"

  "Did they not come with you?

  Awkward glances passed between Trevor, Stephen, and myself as we looked back and forth between Auntie Perrine and each other. "So, you really can't see them then?"

  "No, Seraphine. Apparently that is a gift that was bestowed upon you and your momma, but not me." She apparently registered the disappointment in my face because she continued on, "don't worry! I don't need to see them to help."

  "Oh, okay." I turned and looked from Trevor to Stephen. "Well, this is my Auntie Perrine." I pointed to the house next, "and this is home."

  "I can see why you missed it so much." Stephen said to me as he looked around.

  "Yeah." I stopped myself short of sighing and then got excited again, "hey, you haven't seen anything yet! Just wait till we take you down in the French Quarter and to my Auntie's store."

  "Okay," Auntie Perrine was looking at me strangely again, "that's going to take some getting used to."

  "Sorry, Auntie." I repeated what Stephen had said so that she wasn't left out of the conversation. "I'll set the laptop up inside. Stephen can chat with it. Trevor's still trying to master those skills."

  "He can manipulate things with touch?"

  "Only Stephen right now, and only small things." I answered while trying to stifle a yawn that quickly grew into a life of its own.

  "You're tired, baby girl." Auntie Perrine grabbed me up in a half-shoulder hug and started leading me to the house. "Let's get you settled and we can chat tomorrow."

  ~...~

  Sleep and a shower were my elixir. I felt like a new person in the morning, which was a good thing because Auntie Perrine was gearing up to get to the store bright and early. I watched the boys and their reactions as we drove through New Orleans. Neither of them had been here in life. After seeing their reaction, I supposed it didn't matter what state you were in when seeing things for the first time, it was always a treat.

  "Seraphine, this is amazing." Trevor looked from the window to me, finally and smiled. It was that same smile he wore when I met him, the same one that I had started falling for.

  "I can almost understand why you shut down in Rosedale now. This is a different world." It was Stephen's turn to smile at me.

  "Almost?" I questioned.

  "Yeah, almost. I mean, you had me there, and just never noticed!" His hair slipped back down over his eyes, hiding what he didn't want me to see.

  "I guess you just don't compare to all this!" Trevor added excitedly.

  "Trevor!"

  "What?" He shrugged, "I mean, the first day I met you I knew you were special and made a point of getting to know you better." I was blushing a little, because Trevor had a point. Stephen had pined away for me in quiet solitude while Trevor had let me know right away that he was interested.

  "Too bad you didn't like her once you got to know her." Stephen was mumbling but we heard him and while the words hurt me, it did what he had intended and shut Trevor up.

  "Do I even want to know what this conversation is about, because the flurry of emotions that just played across your face were pretty intense."

  "It was nothing," I said as we pulled up to the familiar store front.

  "Here's the spare keys to the store, why don't you guys go ahead on in while I park the car." Auntie Perrine winked at me and lowered her voice to whisper, "seems like you guys need to say a few things without me listening in to your side of the conversation."

  "No, it's not..." I started to protest, but Auntie Perrine wasn't hearing it. She just pushed me towards the door.

  "Go on now, I'll be there in a few minutes."

  I ignored both boys as I went about unlocking the store and letting them in. I turned and locked the door back up behind me.
The store was closed for the day and I didn't want to confuse anyone. I turned back around and started wandering between the familiar shelves. My hands were absentmindedly roaming across everything as I passed by. A feeling deep inside me clenched my gut and brought tears to my eyes. I had missed this place. I had missed home, and I had kept all that bottled up along with the solitude I had worn as my own personal prison for more than a year now. This was home, and while Rosedale brought me to both Stephen and Trevor, I had nothing else to thank it for.

  "Seraphine?" Stephen called quietly.

  I wiped the tears from my eyes that were about to fall and I walked quickly over to the counter towards the back where I would find the herbs Auntie Perrine said we needed.

  "Seraphine," My Auntie's voice broke into my reverie as I just stood there staring at the herbs. "We won't be using any of those. I have fresh in the back, remember?" She smiled at me and came over to hug me again, "It's still home for you. It will be here for you when you are finished with school, if you want it." She pulled me along with her away from the herb cabinet to the back of the store. I don't know how she did it, but Auntie Perrine was a mind reader. She couldn't really read people's thoughts, but she could read their body language well, and she was always an expert at reading me."

  We wandered into the back of the store and were looking through some of the herbs that were hanging out to dry when she asked, "are they here with you, or still out in the store?" I nodded to the store so she felt free to say whatever was on her mind. "Seraphine, I am worried about you. What have you done?"

  "I don't understand."

  "You've gone and fallen in love with two spirits, baby girl. The struggle is all over your face when you are talking to them."

  That did it, the damn I had built up broke and the tears began to fall. "I don't know what to do, Auntie." She handed me tissue to use and just hugged me. "

  "Oh, baby girl, the LaLande women have always had it rough in love, but you..." she kissed my head and then looked me in the eye, "you've done gone and beaten us all."

  "What if this doesn't work?" I finally voiced the thing that had been plaguing my very existence since Auntie Perrine had given us hope. "What if Stephen doesn't get put in that body? What if I end up loosing them both?" I crumpled in on myself a little, "I don't know if I can handle that outcome."

  "I know, sweet girl. You have to try though, because it's what they both want. And you have to have a little faith. Your magic has not let you down yet!"

  "How can you say that? Look at the messes I've made with it." I couldn't tell her about Vampire Dave, but she knew about the zombies, and that alone should have been enough to convince anyone that I wasn't exactly capable. "Do you remember the zombie apocalypse I almost caused?"

  "Okay, intervention time." My auntie swung me around and sat me down on a stool. "Seraphine, has it not occurred to you that your magic didn't mess up?"

  "What do you mean, of course I messed it up."

  "No, baby girl. Everything happens for a reason. If you hadn't messed up with that zombie girl you raised,"

  I cut her off, remembering my conversation with Stephen, and not wanting to forget Adrianna. "Adrianna," I said, wanting to remember that she was a person once.

  "Adrianna," Auntie smiled at me and continued on, "Adrianna didn't walk away from your circle for no reason. There was a purpose to it. She brought you to Stephen, who you were destined to know, maybe even destined to help." She patted my leg and reached for more tissue. "Then you were the one who ran into Trevor on his first day at school."

  "I ran into the principal, actually."

  "You ran into your destiny again, Seraphine." She handed me the tissue now, because the tears were back and flowing steadily. "I don't know if you were destined to love these boys, or just help them. Maybe you can't help them without loving them first, I don't know." She pushed the curls that had fallen in my face back behind my ears. "Seraphine, you are my pride and joy. There is so much more to you than you have ever acknowledged. You shine in the midst of all the dull people in this world. I know your gift has never been to see auras. That's mine, and it's mine for a reason. Just like being able to see your boys was your gift for a reason. You're aura is pure golden light, Seraphine. You are an angel among mortals, and this is part of your destiny, to give these boys the lives they desire." She wiped away some of the tears that were still streaming down my cheeks. "If you put that love into your ritual, I have to believe that you will make it happen."

  "But what then?" I looked up as I heard something at the doorway.

  "Sorry," Trevor said, "we weren't sure if we should come back.

  "It's okay." I said, reassuring Trevor that he hadn't done anything wrong and letting my auntie know they were in the room now.

  "Everything has a reason, baby girl, remember that." I looked up as Trevor backed out of the room and Stephen walked in just as my auntie was finishing, "maybe, this is a second chance for more than just Stephen's life. Maybe it's a second chance for yours too. You have to stop living as a ghost yourself. You tell me such lonely tales about walking the halls of your school without seeing anything. You tell me about shutting yourself away and being lonely because you miss home. You, my dear girl, had forgotten to live until these boys came into your life. The dead have their purpose, it's to make the living remember why they need to go on." I looked up again to see Stephen smiling down at me.

  "I see why you tell your Auntie Perrine everything."

  "Yeah, she's amazing."

  "So are you." Stephen walked back out of the room after saying it, but I knew why he did. He had always been the shy one who watched me from afar. It was hard for him to let me know how he felt. The problem was I knew what was in his heart, because it was there in mine too. He was the person I was supposed to have been with. If I had ever woken up and started living my life in Rosedale, we would have been together. Now, I had the chance to make that happen again. Trevor didn't want his life anymore. It was the first time I had thought of things this way. Trevor wasn't fighting to get back to his body to be with me, but Stephen was. If ever there was a sign of where my destiny might lie, it was in that fight for life, the fight to come back to me.

  ***

  Becoming

  I stared at the moon that looked deceivingly full, knowing in fact that it had one more day to complete that cycle. Tonight, I would become a Voodoo Priestess under the light of the almost full moon. The moon cycle that offered the promise of light in dark times. All we had in magic was the promise of what was to come, which is why we chose the almost full moon to conduct this special ceremony. The promise of what was to come was the thing that kept us going, kept us living, and moving forward. Hope was a potent magic all its own.

  My Auntie Perrine was glowing in the moonlight. She looked absolutely magnificent, standing before us, absorbing and radiating the light the moon was reflecting for us.

  "Seraphine Rose LaLande," My aunt's voice seemed so far away and yet it was magnified on the stagnant, humid, summer air that clung to all of us like a second skin. "You are here tonight before the promise of a full moon, before friends, and family to receive the blessings of the Loa." Her voice deepened as I listened and I knew the exact moment when she had been inhabited by the Loa. Her beautiful hair, so much like my own, blew back in a non-existent wind. She was radiating energy, beauty, and the spirit of the Loa. "We bestow upon you," she started as she placed the blood of the sacrifice upon my forehead, "the life force to carry you well on your journey." "We bestow upon you the wisdom," again the blood was touched to my face, this time a streak of it placed upon my right cheek, "to see you through the journey that stands before you." I lifted my chin a bit higher, toward the moon's light that I could have sworn I felt caressing my face. "We bestow upon you the courage to see you through this journey, to see the path, and know that you travel it well." Another streak of the blessed blood was placed upon me, this time on my left cheek. I stood still, watching as my Auntie Perrine, full and s
hining with the possession of the Lao, continued on with the ceremony. "We bestow upon you the love that will guide your heart into doing what is right." This time the blood was placed upon my lips as my Auntie Perrine threw her head back and began chanting in a language I shouldn't have been able to understand, but I knew in my heart what it meant. She was speaking of all the things I had been, all the things that had brought me to this point, and all the things that would come until my destiny was fulfilled. As her chant came to an end, her head drifted back down and she looked me in the eye, the piercing fierceness there belonging to the Loa washed away before my eyes and my Auntie Perrine was back and in control of her body and the ceremony. "We also bestow upon you the grace and protection of our ancestors, of our family, and of the Loa themselves." She dabbed a spot of the sacrificial blood upon each of my eyelids before laying a kiss there on each one. "You have proven yourself in trials and proven yourself in life. Seraphine Rose LaLande, welcome to your new life. You are no longer the girl who questioned everything, now you are the Priestess who shall have the answers."

  With that last sentiment the candles that had been burning throughout the ceremony extinguished themselves. I was filled, momentarily, with the Loa as they passed their congratulations and blessings on to me. I had never channeled the Loa before so the tingling sensation they left behind was something new and exciting. I shivered as the last of the spirit gods left my body, taking that warmth with them. I looked around, smiling at my Auntie Perrine, and at the two spirit boys who had come to witness my ascension to Voodoo Priestess.

  After the ceremony, I sat in the grass on my Auntie Perrine's back yard, staring up at the moon that had been the lighting for my ceremony. I can't say that I felt any different, other than a little residual tingling from the hello the Loa greeted me with during the ceremony. I was drinking from my bottle of water when Stephen came and sat beside me.