She walked up the steps to the porch and stood, looking around.
The old woman just nodded. "She's out back dere, hon. She's expectin' you. Say, when you be done talking wit' her, why not come on back and sit a spell with me," and the old lady went back to stringing the green beans.
Tisiphone walked through the house, the screen door rattling against the jam as she let the long spring slam it shut. She went through the dining room and into the kitchen. She noticed an old gas stove that sat in a corner beside an ancient Hotpoint refrigerator that was showing rust through its old white paint. A typical older country kitchen, but minus the usual silly plates with rustic sayings on the wall. Tisiphone continued and exited a back door, it's gray screen torn and rusted.
In the back was a long lawn. St Augustine grass that needed cutting, patches of crab grass and various tall weeds here and there, along with a few bare spots. A figure dressed in white and yellow sat in a red metal lawn chair, looking out at a bayou lined with cypress trees. As Tisiphone approached, the figure turned around.
An albino face with pale blue eyes peek out from under the huge hat, her smile surrounded by light brown freckles. A softness emanated from the woman's ageless face.
"Madam Marassa Jumeaux at your service," the woman said. She turned back to watch the swamp. "What d'you, of all people, be a needin' with me?"
"I was presented with a petition, and I did not want to enter in your domain without paying my respects," Tisiphone explained.
"I happy to know you be rememberin' de old rules. Why, not too long ago, the petitioner would seek out myself or another Loa, but it's nice t'know you ladies are being still bein' membered," she sighed. "Go on, sit, let's visit some."
An oval backed metal lawn chair appeared next to Jumeaux. Tisiphone sat and looked out into the bayou.
"Watch, over yonder dere, see that large tree? I've been watchin' that one for a while now, him." Jumeaux pointed.
Tisiphone directed her attention to a large alligator sunning itself on a bare patch of dirt, in front of a huge cypress tree.
"He be de king of de swamp. Now, lookie ovah by dat other side. See dat smaller feller? Now, he be tryin' to stake out his own territory." She looked at Tisiphone, narrowing one eye. "Don' worry none, you don't have to be any t'where soon, I know."
Tisiphone smiled and sat back. The smaller alligator slowly swam into the middle of the open water, it's eyes fixed on the old male. The huge alligator kept on sunning itself, mouth open. It seemed oblivious to the interloper gliding through the water. Then, as soon as the smaller alligator got a bit too close, the old male suddenly moved, sliding into the water at high speed, snapping at the smaller male. The small one splashed as it turned and swam away in a panic.
"Now, it seems to me, you might just want t'see if dat ol king can lend a hand, yes?" Jumeaux asked.
"If he's amenable to work with me, that'd be a very interesting way to deal with the target," Tisiphone replied, her bright green eyes glinted at the possibilities.
"Just reach out and ask, t'all you have to do," the older woman smiled. "He's an agreeable sort, that king is."
Tisiphone reached out. The large alligator glided to a stop in the water and raised his head slightly out of the water, one golden eye looking at Tisiphone. The eye shut momentarily and the alligator dipped below the surface with almost no ripple.
"This should be interesting," Tisiphone finally said.
"Dere's a lot the swamp offers us, if we choose to accept," Jumeaux smiled and stood up. "Marie is ready with dinner, so be a dawlin' an join us?"
"I'd be happy to, Madam Jumeaux," Tisiphone said, standing.
"Marie is a happy cook. She benhavin' a good time since I lifted her up out of that cramped tomb all dose years ago," Jumeaux smiled as Tisiphone took her arm and helped the elder goddess back to the house.
Junior Davis, Cajun swamp citizen and part time crawfish poacher, launched a small skiff into the dark waters of the bayou.
His round body was stuffed into a dirty gray LSU t-shirt with the sleeves torn out and pale blue jeans that were washed almost to threads. On his puffy body sat a bucket shaped head, topped with black hair sticking up stiffly over a sunburned forehead. Two beady black eyes rounded out the vision. He bent and pulled the starter rope on a small outboard motor, which coughed to life. It rattled and spewed a blue cloud of unburned hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide, slowly drifted out upon the glassy water.
He aimed the small boat between a stand of cypress and out into the bayou, the small engine sputtering along.
The first jug moved into view around some gray cypress stumps peeking out of the water. Junior aimed the skiff to pull alongside the bleach bottle with a spot of yellow paint on the top. He sat down, then pulled the bottle attached to about 5 feet of greenish nylon rope. At the end was a mesh crawfish trap filled with the small crustaceans, a writhing mass that he tipped into a large cooler perched on the bow of his boat. He dropped the trap in to the water, not bothering to rebait, as it wasn't his trap. He rose up and grabbed a long pole, to propel him towards more traps without firing up the motor and making noise.
The different colors marked who owned the trap. Junior ignored that as he went for another jug, this one smeared with orange paint.
At the dinner table, set out in the small room between the kitchen and living room, Marie had managed to set a dinner spread of chicken, duck, green beans with bacon, seasoned squash, and table wine. Tisiphone ate while Jumeaux and Marie gossiped about the people placing flowers at Marie's tomb. All the while not knowing the Voodoo queen had been raised from the dead ages ago.
"Just image what dey all would do if she just showed up one day, opening that tomb door and just stepping right out in de daylight!" Jumeaux laughed.
"They's be calling on me all the time, not knowing dat I'm out heah in da bayous," Marie laughed, picking at her beans.
"This chicken is excellent, and these beans, I've never tasted anything like them," Tisiphone said in between bites.
"Hon, ya'll need to visit more often!" Marie laughed, sitting back, and closing her eyes. Her voice shifted as she channeled. "Ok, dear. I'm getting a message direct from the great spirits. You did tell Mother Goddess of the earlier messages?"
Tisiphone was silent a full minute, then she nodded slowly. "Yes, something vague."
"Be extra careful. You have to take it very seriously. Even the good mother is in danger now. All that anger. That's' one unhappy spirit." Marie shook her head. "Lawdy, I done hate when they go and do that, me. Jus' barge right into my skull! Not even knocking first!"
"I'm jus' glad it ain't me they use!" Jumeaux laughed. She looked towards the back of the house. "Dawlin', the one you seek is near, time to go get 'em!"
Tisiphone looked up, and smiled. "Just in time. You'll want to come out and watch, this will be entertaining. I'll be right back."
In moments, Tisiphone was out the front door and on her motorcycle. It rumbled to life and she carefully steered it around the house and across the back yard towards the bayou.
The motorcycle rolled to the edge of the water and floated gently out and away from shore. The black bike glided across the water's surface, not really touching the water. It hovered.
The large alligator watched Tisiphone as she guided the motorcycle around some cypress trees and past the huge reptile. He slipped silently into the water following Tisiphone, his huge tail swinging side to side as he propelled himself through the swamp.
Between the trees, Tisiphone caught sight of Junior poling across the water. He stooped and pulled up another bleach jug, this one painted red. He hauled out the trap and tipped the crawfish into a cooler and tossed the trap overboard. He poled slowly to another bleach jug, this one painted blue.
Tisiphone watched for a while longer, then it was time to make contact.
She began riding over sand bars and in between trees, which immediately attracted Junior's attention because no one rides a motorcycle in the swamp, much
less a woman in black leather. In a swamp?
"Jesus Gawd! How da' hell she a doin' that?" he muttered. "Gawdamn ain't she a looker, tho."
She rode into plain view, hovering across the water, and Junior's eyes were pegged to the vision. He sat down and started the tiny motor then aimed the skiff to where Tisiphone was showing off. Tisiphone started to lead Junior around trees and through the bayou towards where the two women were sitting. Tisiphone grinned when Junior's mouth dropped open. She had stopped in an area at least four feet deep.
Junior motored across the open water and slowed to a stop next to Tisiphone.
"Looka yew! What in hell kind of motor bike is dat? Naw, it can't be just floatin'?" Junior asked, his eyes torn between the sight of the woman and the miracle bike. He cut the motor and drifted a few feet.
She turned and smiled. Her eyes bored deep into his beady eyes. He jolted back and stood up.
Visions flooded his mind: Junior seated next to his dear mother as she lay dead in her old bed. The doctor slowly draping a white sheet across his mother's sunken face, the doctor's sorrowful eyes looking at Junior. Now, the funeral: His family all around the casket, the priest reciting the age-old words as Junior and his uncles carried the casket into one of the white limestone tombs that housed multiple families.
He saw his fat sister grinning, mouth open, showing off multiple missing teeth as she told Junior she was the only beneficiary of the insurance check and she had it all spent already.
Junior's vision grew red as he sat on the porch, looking at his mother's empty bed, moved out of the big bedroom and out onto the porch. He sat listening to his sister entertaining one of several men that visited, the ugly sister carrying on since his mother's death.
Now, night. Tree frogs singing in the darkness, Junior waiting and watching. The last "friend" leaving. Busy buttoning up faded jeans as the man walked, walking to an old panel truck. Junior waited until he heard his sister snoring.
Now, vision of his sister in bed, the pillow pushed into her face, Junior sitting with a knee on each side of her flabby stomach, struggling, hitting at him with doughy arms, then slowly stopping. Now, her immense body lying dead in the bed.
The visions shifted: Junior guiding the skiff out into the swamp, his sister's lifeless body crammed into the bow. Now he was wiring cinder block bricks to her puffy ankles and around her neck.
The vision shifted: Junior hauling up the body, dumping it into the water, her lifeless eyes staring at back Junior, the blank eyes accusing him of her murder. Him letting go, and watching her body slip into the dark green water, her pale, round form slowly fading in a ten-foot-deep channel of the bayou.
Then Tisiphone snapped him out of the visions. She made eye contact as her wings suddenly unfurled, the huge black wings almost touching the water. It was all in the timing. Too soon, and they'd run off, too late and the fear made them numb.
"What in da hell are you?" he cried.
In a panic, he stood and tried to get the engine started. The small outboard coughed and belched blue smoke, but didn't start. Junior started pulling harder on the rope, his terrified motion started wildly rocking the skiff.
Tisiphone laughed as the large man frantically pulled on the frayed cord, and it finally snapped. Junior wind milled his arms as he fell backwards and into the water. He created a huge splash, fighting to get his feet under him, frantic to stand up on the thick muddy bottom. He screamed when he saw a shape rushing towards him in the dark and muddy water, the huge tail kicking up an enormous wake.
The King grabbed Junior by the left leg, and started a violent death roll. Water flew in all directions as Junior fought, his arms swinging and trying to hit the alligator. The King dragged him under, the water roiling as the alligator shook and twisted. Then, as suddenly as it started, there was silence. The ripples in the water slowly died out, and peace was returned to the bayou.
The King had stuffed Junior into the curve of a cypress tree root, leaving him until he was nice and ripe.
Tisiphone reached out and hooked a leg on the skiff, pulled it close, bent and grabbed a rope in her right hand. She tied the rope to her motorcycle and started towing the skiff, aiming for the muddy shore.
She rode her motorcycle back onto the bank, then pulled the skiff almost out of the water. Marie and Madam Jumeaux were there to greet her.
"Now, that was very entertainin'," Marie Laveau smiled. "I'll take those mudbugs, if you don' want 'em."
"They're all for you, ladies," Tisiphone laughed.
"Then I'm ah sendin' along a pot full with you for your sisters and Mother Goddess, in the King's honor," Jumeaux said, grinning. "Lawdy, that was somethin', I'm tellin' you! That's some beast, that is," she said, touching the side of Tisiphone's motorcycle.
"He's honored you noticed," Tisiphone climbed off the demonic motorcycle and helped Marie with the cooler of crawfish.
The three walked to the back door of the small house on the bayou, the screen door slapping shut as they entered the dark, cool house.
The alligator king crawled out onto the mud bank and opened his mouth, allowing a small bird to begin cleaning the threads of denim that were stuck in-between the sharp teeth. He shut his eyes and soaked up the sun.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Alecto's Domain
Alecto stepped through the door into her domain and spotted Brianna and Kelsey hard at work on her computer system. Pure quantum computing, a computer that uses the fabric of space/time itself to solve computations in 200 trillionths of a Planck-time.
The cloud display blurred and started showing data: images, arrest reports, personnel files, all scrolling much faster than the human eye could follow. Yet, Brianna was fully at home, working it like an old pro. Kelsey, her face healed, was seated next to Brianna, giving search advice.
"Anything useful, yet?" Alecto asked, setting her katana carefully on the wall, all while admiring the other blades.
"Oh yes, this is an awesome system!" Brianna replied. "I could use a normal keyboard and mouse, though. I'm having a hard time controlling it. I get excited and the screen does that, junk scrolling up and down."
Alecto sighed, and a keyboard materialized near Brianna. It was a copper keyboard, with rounded keys.
"Oh! Super cool!" Brianna explained. She hit a few keys, and brought up a mug shot of a man: Kyle. His FBI records appeared below the photo.
"We found him. This is the donkey fucker who killed us. His name is Kyle Banks, and get this, he's FBI, or was until just recently," Kelsey added. "I let that bastard pick me up at a bar that was full of people I know!"
Alecto joined the two by the display. A large image of Kyle rotated in mid-air.
"Now what do you plan to do?" Alecto asked.
"I was thinking of trying to tell Uncle Dan about this man," she replied.
"How's he going to hear you? All you've managed to do is move a file folder and tickle his neck," Alecto said sternly, her hands on her hips. She staring into the eyes of the serial killer displayed in the air.
Kelsey looked at the image. "I could try. He needs to know this guy is the killer. He's still in town."
Brianna stepped back and let out a long sigh. "Wouldn't it solve my issues if my uncle caught the guy, instead of you or Tisiphone?"
"It would, yes. As long as he's caught and is executed for his crime. That also would mean you'd be stuck on earth until he's either executed or dies in prison."
"Not just being caught and thrown in jail?" Brianna asked with her eyes going wide.
"This is old fashioned eye for an eye territory: He must die to release either of you to continue your journey. We are the ones who make that happen the quickest. We also make sure that they know at the moment of their death, why they are being killed," Alecto explained. She added, "I have a petitioner to tend to. I suggest you begin another search. I'd look for any deaths or missing people that you can tie to his name," Alecto said as she turned walked into her closet.
"Can I tag along?
" Brianna asked.
"Oh, hell no!" Alecto turned in shock. "I work alone and you, child, cannot be a Fury!"
"Why not?" Brianna challenged.
"One is born a Fury," With that, Alecto shut the door to her closet and a frustrated Brianna turned and dropped into the office chair by the computer keyboard.
Kelsey pulled her chair up closer and began typing. "We'll do a records search. See if Banks had any relatives who died in suspicious ways."
Alecto reappeared from her closet in a skin tight red dress, slit to the hip, backless and with a plunging neckline. Awe inspiring legs were shown off as she walked into the room. It displayed a sexiness not seen since a certain blonde movie star serenaded a United States President.
Brianna's eyes went wide. "Oh, my god! Look at you!"
Alecto smiled. "This will allow me to take full control of the target."
"That's so cool!" Brianna sat back down and her demeanor shifted. "I meant what I said, I'd like to be a Fury."
Alecto stood next to Brianna and motioned for her to stand.
"You do have strength of spirit I haven't seen in a long time." Alecto looked at Brianna eye-to-eye. She continued, "But, Furies are born, we're immortals living in the mortal dimension. You are a human, and once this guy is taken out, you'll be pulled to the other places where human spirits dwell."
"Where do we go?" Kelsey asked.
"It all depends on what you expect. In ancient times, one usually went to the Underworld. Lately, it's all different destinations, depending on your philosophy," Alecto patted Kelsey on the shoulder, then moved to pick out a suitable weapon for tonight.
"Mine will be filled with all my pets I had growing up," Kelsey said, a slight smile on her face.
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