by Reid, Terri
“Paul, I think Sally’s right. This is the best way to catch her.”
He turned to Eloise in amazement. “Excuse me; didn’t you just nearly get pulled in again? Didn’t you just nearly die? Why would you want to place yourself in jeopardy?”
“Paul,” Sally began, “What is a better choice, to send Eloise back in a controlled situation where we can monitor her and help her if needed, or slowly pursue the investigation and leave Eloise open to another unprepared attack?”
He shook his head. “Yeah, but you’re not entirely sure that she’s going to be safe in your controlled situation.”
“I’ll be a lot safer than if I’m caught off guard again,” Eloise insisted, “At least this way perhaps we can learn more about the person who is behind all of this.”
He paced the perimeter of the small common area and rubbed his forehead. Finally, he turned and faced Eloise.
“Do you really want to do this?”
Eloise nodded definitely. “Yes. Yes I do.”
Paul shook his head and sighed.
“Fine, let’s do it. Sally, tell me what you want me to do.”
Sally slipped off the desk and slowly examined the room. Finally, she turned to Eloise and said, “I think this chair is the best place, unless of course you would be more comfortable in your bed?”
Eloise shook her head. “More comfortable for what?”
“Well,” Sally explained, nonchalantly. “In order to be safe on your journey, you need to be rooted to us at the base camp. So, basically you need to be in Paul’s arms throughout the experiment.”
“Well, in that case,” Paul paused for a moment as if he were reflecting on the choices, “I really think it ought to be the bed.”
Eloise swung around to argue with him and saw the grin on his face. She shook her head and turned back to Sally. “The chair. Definitely the chair.”
Eloise stood and Paul sat down on the chair. Then Eloise sat tentatively on the edge of the chair next to him.
Sally shook her head. “No, sorry, that’s not going to work,” she explained, “You need to be grounded to him – not on the next continent. Climb into his lap and put your arms around his neck. And Paul, put your arms around her and hold her tight.”
Eloise moved hesitantly onto Paul’s lap. She laid her hands timidly on his shoulders. Paul placed his arms around her in a loose hold, trying as hard as he could not to actually touch her.
Sally looked up to the ceiling and swore. Then she marched over to Paul and Eloise.
“Okay, this isn’t a blind date or the prom,” she said harshly, “I realize on certain levels you are uncomfortable with this, and I’m okay with that. However, I never run an experiment with half-assed participation, so either you’re both with me, or you’re both not.”
She walked across the room, sat on one of the stools and folded her arms across her chest. “Paul, Eloise is going back to the beach. She will be met there by a monster who wants to drown her. And Eloise, do you remember the laughter, how it felt? Do you remember the fear? Do you remember the water washing between your legs? Paul is your link, your only link to survival.”
Paul pulled Eloise closer against his chest. His arms tightened around her and he laid his head on top of hers. Eloise buried her head against Paul’s chest and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. She could feel his breath against her back, warm and comforting.
“Better,” Sally said, “much better. Okay, Eloise I want you to try to remember what happened just before your last episode.”
Eloise turned her head toward Sally, “We were talking about Lalaurie and madness. Paul said something about the holocaust.”
Sally nodded, “And you said that is wasn’t madness it was evil.”
Eloise felt hazy for a moment. Then she shook her head to clear it.
“What just happened,” asked Sally.
“I was dizzy for a second,” Eloise said, “But it’s gone now.”
Sally looked at Paul. “Loosen your grip.”
“What?” Paul asked in disbelief.
“You’re holding her too tight – she can’t go. Loosen your grip.”
Paul looked down at Eloise, lying in his arms. “I’m having a real hard time with this,” he said softly, “Can we look for another way?”
Eloise shook her head. “No, I’m afraid that this is the only way.”
Paul nodded slowly. “Okay, but before I loosen my grip, I want to make sure that you remember what you’ve left behind.”
Paul looked down at her for a moment, and then slowly lowered his face to hers. He tightened his hold and pulled her against his body. He crushed her lips with his and kissed with an intensity that left her breathless and wanting more. After a moment, he lifted his head and stared into her eyes, “Remember me, wherever you go, remember me.”
He shifted slightly, loosening his grip on her – only holding lightly to her shoulders.
Eloise lifted her hands to her slightly bruised lips and looked up at Paul. She started to speak to him when the room began to fade before her eyes. In seconds she was back at the same marshy area she had seen earlier. This time, though, she had a plan.
Eloise scanned the area for landmarks. She could see the remains of a concrete harbor about a mile down. The land itself seemed to jut out into the ocean, like a peninsula. She turned away from the water and saw a rise just beyond the lowlands that blocked her view of the vista beyond.
“You have strong power.”
Eloise turned quickly to face the speaker. An incredibly beautiful white woman stood before her. Her dark hair curled around her pale skin and green eyes. She wore a low cut satin gown and she carried a whip. Eloise saw the evil, the madness, in her eyes.
“Madame Delphine Lalaurie,” Eloise stated.
She nodded regally. “So, you know who I am. You are smarter than I thought.”
“I have friends, powerful friends, who are not happy with what you are trying to do here.”
Delphine shrugged. “You refer to Maria Leveau, I presume?”
Surprised, Eloise nodded. “Yes, she is one.”
“She cannot bother me,” she laughed, “The destruction of New Orleans, the death of so many, has left her very weak.”
“Which is why you are trying this now and have not done so in the past,” Eloise said.
Delphine laughed. “You are a clever girl. Yes, it is because of her weakness that I am able to try. In the past, New Orleans has been spared and Maria’s powers have kept me away from the souls of the departed. Now that she is weak, I will become even stronger than she ever was.”
“No,” Eloise countered, “You will never be as strong as Maria. She is free because she loves – you are captive because you destroy.”
Delphine glided around Eloise, her face filled with rage.
“This has nothing to do with love,” she spat out, “This has to do with science.”
Eloise shook her head. “I understand both science and love – your experiments had nothing to do with either.”
Delphine’s face soured. “No, if I had been a man, I would have been considered brilliant. People would have come from around the world to witness my experiments. But because it was not socially acceptable for a woman to have a brain, I was castigated.”
“You were using people like laboratory mice,” Eloise countered, “You had no right.”
She lifted the whip as if to strike Eloise, but Eloise stood her ground and stared back.
“I had every right,” Delphine stated, “They belonged to me.”
“No, they belonged to no one,” Eloise stated, “And even if you didn’t understand the unfairness of slavery, there was no way you could justify your treatment of those poor souls!”
Delphine shrugged and dropped the whip to her side.
“I don’t need to justify myself to anyone, least of all you.”
Eloise shook her head slightly. “Someday we all need to justify our lives to someone.”
Delphine
glided slowly around Eloise, once again, her bare feet leaving no mark in the marshy ground. Eloise stood steadfastly, breathing softly, trying to control the itch of panic.
“You fear me.”
Eloise could see the glitter of madness increase in her eyes.
Eloise shook her head. “I seek to understand you and your power.”
Delphine acknowledged the answer with a smile; she could understand the search for power. “Yet, you yourself have great power.”
Eloise shook here head. “I have a gift.”
Delphine shook her head in disagreement. “It is not of your sight that I speak, it is of your other power. It rests upon you now. It guards you now.”
“But can it protect you always?” Delphine continued, stopping in front of Eloise.
“I only want to help those who have died find their way to the other side,” Eloise said, trying to change the subject.
“And why do you do this?”
Eloise shrugged. “It is a gift, it is a responsibility. I could do no less.”
Delphine smiled. “Yes, so noble, so true.”
Delphine spat on the ground. “I was like you once – obedient, dutiful, boring. But then I found a different way, a more exciting way, and a way that gave me the power that I craved.”
“And you became a slave to the power.”
Delphine lifted her head and laughed. The sound reminded Eloise of the sea crashing against the shore. She began to feel anxious. Could Paul really save her?
Delphine smiled. “You think you understand me? You think I regret my life, my choices?”
Delphine’s eyes changed, filling with the grays and browns of an angry ocean. She lifted her hands above her head and lightening crashed down at the edge of the shore. She laughed again, this time her laughter was mixed with madness.
“Perhaps I must allow you to visit with those you seek to help.”
Eloise gasped as her body was lifted from the ground. She was held there, suspended in the air. She shouldn’t have trusted Sally or Paul. And she was going to pay for her mistake.
Delphine laughed. “So much for your great power!”
As if shot from a cannon, Eloise was hurled out into the gulf. She flew over the small islands of the wetlands. She saw the whitecaps of the waves. She flew past the buoys. Soon the land was just a part of the distant horizon.
Eloise tried to scream, but just as in the nightmares she experienced as a child, the scream was caught in her throat.
She looked down at the swirling waters tossing below her, and then suddenly she stopped moving. She hung, suspended above the water for a moment, and then was thrust into the cold, deep waters of the gulf. She felt the waters close over her head as her body was pushed down to the depths.
As she sank, the murkiness of the water cleared. Eloise kicked her legs and spun her arms, trying to swim back to the surface. She felt something close around her left ankle. Peering down, she saw a bloated hand grasping her leg. She tried to kick it off, but it began to pull her deeper into the depths, into a mass of what looked like seaweed. As she got closer, she could tell that it wasn’t seaweed, it was human hair.
She was being pulled into a sea of bodies, those who had been swept out into the gulf by the power of the hurricane. She felt hands and arms scrape against her body, catch on her clothing, and snagging her hair. She twisted and pulled, trying to escape the human trap that Delphine had set for her.
Her lungs wanted to burst from lack of air. She could feel oxygen deprivation setting in, the light-headedness and spots before her eyes.
“Oh, God,” she thought, as she was caught tighter in the human web, “I am going to die.”
She thought about Paul and the last kiss they shared. She raised her hand to her lips to feel the memory of the kiss one last time.
Suddenly, she was caught by strong arms and pulled out of the water. She gasped and felt the air force its way into her lungs. She shuddered and coughed up sea water.
The strong arms enfolded her and bent her over so she could cough out the rest of the water. Then she was turned and held against a strong and familiar chest.
“Okay, I’ve got blankets,” she could hear Sally’s voice from what seemed like a long way away. “Come on Paul, lift her up for a second, I have to get these around her.”
Eloise felt herself being cocooned in a soft dry blanket.
“Damn stupid idea,” Paul growled, as he ran his hand through Eloise’s wet hair, pushing it away from her face. “She nearly died, again. This is enough; she’s going back to D.C.”
Eloise’s throat burned from the salt water and she was exhausted, but she forced herself to speak. “It won’t matter now,” Eloise croaked, “She wants me dead.”
Paul pulled slightly away and looked down into Eloise’s face.
“Who wants you dead?”
“Delphine.”
“Great,” Sally exclaimed, “You got a dead lady gunning for you.”
An hour later, after Eloise had showered and changed once more, she joined Sally and Paul in the common area. Her throat still felt raw from the salt water she had ingested. She was grateful when Paul handed her a cup of tea.
“Here, take a sip.”
The warm honeyed tea soothed her raw throat. She cradled the warmth of the cup in her hands and took another sip.
“Well I can certainly confirm that she’s powerful,” she said, a few sips later. “And mad.”
“You mean as in angry, mad?” Sally asked.
Eloise shook her head. “No, I mean as in crazy – mad.”
“That’s not good,” Sally said.
Eloise nodded. “Yeah, I kinda figured that when I was dancing seven leagues under the sea with a bunch of corpses.”
Eloise paused for a moment and then continued, “She did say the strangest thing.”
“What?” Paul and Sally asked at the same time.
“She told me that I had a great power.”
Paul shrugged. “You do. Your gift of sight has helped thousands of lost souls.”
Eloise shook her head. “No, she said it wasn’t my gift of sight. She said that the power was resting upon me, guarding me.”
Paul and Sally met each other’s eyes and Sally lifted her brows smugly as if saying, “I told you so.”
“Weird, huh?” said Eloise.
“Yeah. Weird,” repeated Paul and Sally.
“So what do we do next?” asked Sally, “Were you able to get any information about the place, where it might be located?”
“Yes,” Eloise answered. “It’s on a peninsula. Its landlocked end is encompassed by a tall ridge – about twelve feet high. There looks like what remains of a concrete pier on the eastern side of the outcropping.”
“Great,” said Paul, “I’ll pull some topographical maps and we can see if we can’t locate the beach.”
“Okay,” said Sally, “We locate the place. Then what?”
“Then we put together a plan,” said Eloise.
“A plan?” asked Sally, “What kind of plan?”
Eloise shrugged. “Well, hopefully a plan where I end up dry and she ends up gone.”
Chapter Eight
While Eloise and Sally researched more information about Delphine Lalaurie, Paul reviewed the topographical maps based on the information Eloise had provided. He finally decided on two likely places, both located on one of the southern tips of St. Bernard Parish.
“Considering how close you were to the Gulf and the fact that you passed so many smaller islands really helps to narrow down the possibilities,” he explained.
“So, is it field trip time?” asked Sally eagerly.
Paul glanced up at the clock. “Well, I don’t think I want to drive around deserted marshlands at midnight, how about you?”
Sally glanced up, “Wow! I didn’t realize it was so late.”
She stretched her arms up over her neck and arched her back. “I’m going to sleep well tonight.”
She hopped down fro
m the computer desk and emptied her tea cup into the sink.
“So, do you two want to use Eloise’s room or put together something makeshift out here?”
“I beg your pardon?” Eloise asked.
“What!?!” Paul exclaimed.
Sally sighed and then explained slowly, as if speaking to children. “Delphine knows that we are on to her, right?”
Eloise shrugged. “I suppose.”
Paul nodded.
“We also know that she would really rather not have us mess up her little plan, right?”
“Okay, agreed,” Eloise admitted hesitantly.
“We also know that the only time you are protected from her is when you are in Paul’s arms – the grounding or whatever, I don’t know,” Sally said, “But other than a surprise blast of Mormon Tabernacle Choir that has been the only thing that’s worked.”
“Sally I can’t spend the rest of this investigation in Paul’s arms,” Eloise stated, “No offense, Paul.”
Paul nodded. “None taken.”
Sally shrugged. “Well, you don’t have to spend the rest of the investigation in Paul’s arms, because when we are awake and with you and you go off to bad spirit land, Paul can quickly react.”
Sally moved to stand in front of both of them.
“But what happens if you are asleep and alone in your room she grabs you? Can you survive four or five hours with her?”
Eloise shook her head. “No, but there has to be another solution.”
“Well, yeah, Paul and I can stay up all night guarding you while you sleep. That’ll be a good time.”
Paul stood up and walked to the kitchen counter. He ran his hand over his forehead, taking a moment to gather his thoughts.
“Sally, go, get some sleep,” he said, “I’ve pulled all nighters before, I can do it again. No problem.”
“Okay, I’ll sleep for a while and then I’ll get up early and you can get some sleep,” she agreed.
Eloise watched them, panic growing in her heart. She didn’t want them to sacrifice their sleep, but could she sleep in Paul’s arms? The memory of what happened the last time she was in Paul’s arms came rushing back.
After three weeks of dealing with the dead in the city of Izmit, Paul had taken her away to escape some of the sorrow.