“Alright, thanks girl,” said Ruby, leaning over in her chair and holding her arms out for Devon. Devon walked over to her as best he could and thrust himself into her arms. She scooped him up and hugged him, kissing his cheek. “Alright, my little man. I’ll see you soon.” She kissed him again and then set him down.
Tonya got up from the sofa and I did the same. I thanked her before we left. When we closed the door, I heard Devon start to cry again.
“So, why are the Grigori doing this again?” I asked Ruby on the way back to the car.
“Because they’re tired of being the outcasts of Heaven. They’re bitter and want to take over, to be in charge of the humans again. Not that they ever were in charge. They were here to protect us, but that went sour and now they want their power back. Paladins have managed to kill many of them off, just like we fight all Dark Ones. There aren’t as many as there used to be, so they’re recruiting humans to help them.”
We made it back to her car. She shook her head and looked down the street. “Miles has us busting our asses looking for that mask, but they probably already have it.” We got in the car, and she drove us back across the bridge, exiting onto Claiborne Avenue.
The farther down Claiborne we traveled, the more distressed the buildings became; leaning frames, rotted siding, decayed vines clinging to mildewed exteriors. Some homes looked to be in very good condition considering their neighbors. I hadn’t seen this part of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina came through, devastating the area. I had seen the news reports about how it was being built back up. The Lower Ninth Ward was much worse, though, with overgrown weeds and gutted houses. Progress was being made, however. Lots of good people, including famous movie stars wanting to help. But there was still a long way to go.
Ruby turned down a couple of side streets and eventually pulled into a secure parking garage in the Marigny, an old, working-class neighborhood a couple of miles or so before you cross the bridge to the historic Lower Ninth. She got a parking pass and found a space on the first level. She said nothing as she got out the car and shut the door. I followed her out the garage and down the block.
“Where is this place?” I asked, as we continued onto another block.
“Six streets that way and two over to the right,” she said, nodding straight ahead of us.
“Six? You couldn’t have parked closer?”
“Not in this part of the neighborhood,” she muttered. The closer we got, the more I understood what she meant. The neighborhood got seedier and more unkempt in this area. It seemed the further we went, the denser the atmosphere got. Eyes watched us from porches of Katrina-damaged homes where the roofs were patched and mold clung to the sides. I noticed Ruby tighten up the belt of her red coat and pull the collar a little closer to her neck. Picking up on that cue, I zipped up my jacket and kept my hands in my pockets.
“I didn’t think anyone could live in those houses until they were repaired,” I said.
“They’re not supposed to. The real residents of those houses don’t live here anymore. This neighborhood was always full of poor folks, but they were good people who got run off by Katrina. There are still a lot of the good ones here in St. Roch, lots of decent people who’d give you the shirt off their back.”
“I thought this was the Marigny.”
“That’s South of Claiborne. This part here’s turned to shit with all the squatters and junkies and dealers. And a few gang bangers are in the process of trying to make it their turf, so keep your head down and your mouth shut.”
“I lived in L.A. for a few years. I can take care of myself,” I said, defensively.
“Well, this ain’t Hollywood. It’s the Dirty South and you will get jacked, so just follow me and let me talk for you.”
We turned right after a few blocks and entered a run-down shop district full of liquor stores, cheap restaurants and a laundry mat. Every building and the one lone mailbox on this street were all tagged with gang symbols, but not with the kind I was used to seeing in L.A. These symbols were something else, something more mysterious. It looked like three images in a row. The first seemed to be an arrow aiming straight up, with a slightly diagonal line through the stick part of the arrow. Around the arrow head looked like a giant letter C. And, written across the arrow head were some strange symbols. The next image was a hand with a black small dot just above and just below. Above the top dot were more strange symbols. The final image looked like a horseshoe with a dot toward the bottom and similar symbols above and below.
As we waited for the light to cross to the next block, I took out my cell and snapped a quick picture of the graffiti. When I lowered my phone, I was surprised to find the same guy from the bar and the café, hanging out in the entrance to one of the liquor stores. His hands were in his pockets, and he casually looked across the street like he had nothing better to do. He looked like a still frame from some old rebel movie. All that was missing was a cigarette and a motorcycle, and I had a feeling he had one of those stored away in a garage somewhere.
I felt Ruby tap my arm, and I was jolted back to reality. I hurried to put my phone away as we crossed to the next block, where there were four guys hanging out on the corner, laughing loudly. They didn’t notice us yet, but I felt Ruby tighten up anyway. “Head down,” she murmured to me. I did as she said.
We made it to the next block. Ruby didn’t walk quickly, but she didn’t stroll casually, either. I kept up pace with her and in no time, the four guys took notice of us and were soon walking with us, randomly shouting out, “Hey, baby, where y’all goin’? Y’all lookin’ for somethin’? Hey, look, we havin’ a party later, y’all wanna come?” And they laughed some more, but we kept walking. Three of them hung back, but one kept following us, and he started singing to us while the others laughed. Soon, he gave up and went back to his buddies.
We rounded the next corner and then hung a right into a small alleyway. Ruby stopped at the back door of the second shop on the left and, pulling out a key from her coat pocket, unlocked the door and we went in. My eyes took a couple of seconds to adjust to the dark room that was lit by a black light that highlighted a few Day-Glo posters of 60’s rock icons along the walls. There was a distinct odor in the room—something that brought back memories of my old apartment building in Los Angeles. To complete the effect, “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane was playing from some speakers I couldn’t see.
“Papa!” called Ruby.
“Your dad lives here?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes at me. “He’s my spiritual father. From Nigeria.”
“Nigeria, yes, but I’ve been here so long that my homeland feels like a distant memory.”
I turned toward the sound of the voice. A short, plump, dark-skinned man stepped through a doorway partitioned by a beaded curtain. His teeth and white beard glowed from the black light. He wore a black t-shirt that featured a purple silhouette of Jimi Hendrix. Around his neck was a small leather strap with some kind of animal tooth hanging from it. He smiled brilliantly at me.
“I am Papa Mulogo,” he said, taking my hand in both of his.
“Hi,” I said. “I’m—”
“Leigh,” he finished. “Ruby told me she was bringing you.
I looked suspiciously at Ruby. “I thought we were looking for the mask,” I said. She smirked, pulled out a joint from her purse, lit it and stretched out on the couch.
“The two of you will continue with your mission shortly,” said Papa Mulogo. “But there is something we should do first. Please,” he said, gesturing toward a small table in the corner. I didn’t know what Ruby or her spiritual father had in mind, but I was hesitant to stay any longer. I doubted Miles had this in mind when he sent us out together. “It will only take a moment,” said Mulogo, still smiling.
I relented and took a seat at the table. Mulogo sat opposite me and then, pulling a cigarette lighter from the pocket of his faded jeans, lit a black candle and a white candle which were already on the table. He opened a dra
wer on his side of the table, pulled out an incense stick and lit that as well. He placed the stick in a holder in between the candles, put the lighter back in his pocket and reached out for my hands.
I looked at him suspiciously. He laughed. “Don’t be frightened.”
“What is it that we’re doing exactly?” I said.
“Ruby thought it would be wise to do a cleansing process to clear your mind. If your mind is free from clutter, it will help you on your quest.”
I eyed Ruby, who smirked at me from the couch, her long legs stretched out to the arm rest, looking like she hadn’t a care in the world. “What does this process involve?” I asked Mulogo.
“Just breathe deeply, close your eyes, and place your hands in mine. It’s quite alright. Nothing will harm you here.” He smiled reassuringly at me. I cautiously placed my hands in his, eyed Ruby once more, and then closed my eyes. “Just relax,” he instructed. I inhaled deeply, taking in the earthy aroma of the incense. It was very strong and bitterly unpleasant at first, but the more deeply I breathed, the less I noticed the smell.
“I want you to picture total darkness. You are alone in this darkness, but do not be afraid. You see nothing and nothing sees you. You hear nothing and nothing hears you.”
The sound of his voice seemed to get farther and farther away, and the song that was playing faded to silence. My senses were not working, and I soon felt unsteady. I could not even feel my hands in his. I started to panic. I tried to open my eyes, but my lids were very heavy. I willed them open, and all there was before me was an empty, dark, engulfing space. I wasn’t even sure if my eyes were really open. It was like I was in a dream state.
Slowly, faintly, I began to hear voices chanting from somewhere—a language I did not recognize. I heard one voice—a female—sing out among the chanters, and it sounded ritualistic in nature. There was a soft glow in the distance before me. I tried to walk to it, but my legs would not work. I instead found it coming toward me, slowly. As it grew closer, the eerie chanting and singing grew louder. And then I could see the glow was coming from countless candles held in the hands of the chanters.
I could start to make out their style of dress; they wore long black cloaks and held white candles. They were being led by the lone female vocalist, who appeared to be a high-ranking African priestess. As they approached, I noticed with growing horror that their faces were rotted, some with teeth showing through the sides. Their eyes were a ghostly white.
The procession of these horrific figures—about fifty of them—walked past me without noticing me. There was one lone figure that walked a few feet behind the last row. When this one approached me, I could see it was a man, but he did not look like the others. He looked human, and his eyes soon found mine. It took me a moment to realize this was Miles. He stopped, pulled back his hood and stared at me with a blank expression on his face. His eyes lifted slightly and looked beyond me.
I turned around and there was a large lake before me, and I found myself standing on the shore. There was a half moon high in the sky, and it reflected brilliantly off the water. I turned back around, but Miles was gone. I walked over to the water and felt gentle waves lapping at my bare feet. I gazed down at the surface and was surprised to see my mother’s reflection. My heart ached instantly for her. I reached out, touched the water, and she was gone. Instead, I now saw in the reflection a flock of dark birds gliding across the sky. I looked up and, with dread, realized they weren’t birds at all. High above me, were countless angels with black wings sailing through the darkened night.
My eyes shut and opened, only to find myself in the darkness again. This time, I soon heard Mulogo’s voice, coming from far away, but getting closer. “You can come back now. You can return. You are safe.”
I opened my eyes and had to shut them again because the candlelight was suddenly too bright. Mulogo shook my hands in his and said, “It’s okay. You are safe now. You are here again.” I opened my eyes and squinted at his grinning face. “You did a good job,” he said.
I let go of his hands. “A good job of what? What kind of trip did you put me on?”
He laughed loudly. “Everything you saw and heard was all you. I had nothing to do with it.” I looked over at Ruby, who was no longer smirking at me. Instead she gazed at me with some weird combination of pure hatred and … hurt?
“What’s the matter with you?” I asked her. She ignored me, putting out her joint. She got up from the couch and headed for the door.
“Don’t sit there all day. We have to go find that damned mask,” she muttered, shutting the door behind her.
“What’s wrong with her?” I asked.
“Don’t worry about Ruby. She is the best student I have ever had, but she is constantly looking for something that she cannot find. This makes her difficult at times. I wouldn’t keep her waiting too long if I were you.”
I nodded and got up. “Um, thanks for the … What was that again?”
He paused. “Truthfully? It was a test.” I waited for his explanation. “Ruby needed to know if she could trust you.”
“Doesn’t look like I passed.”
“You did. But I think it left her with more questions.”
“I saw a woman. Some kind of priestess in my dream or whatever it was.”
Mulogo smiled proudly. “You are right. She is a priestess. She carries souls from one life to the next.”
“Why did I see her?”
He shrugged. “Think of it as a dream, open to interpretation.”
I softly laughed. “What is that? Some dark part of my psyche?”
“Everybody have a dark side.” He rose, gesturing toward the door. “Now if you will excuse me, I have some things to attend to. Good luck with your quest,” he said, as a Rolling Stones song started to play from the hidden speakers. I nodded my thanks and left.
When I stepped out, Ruby lit up a cigarette and started walking. I followed her, deciding it was best not to bother her with questions. I was actually startled when she spoke.
“We’re going to cut through the park so we can get back to the garage faster. You don’t want to be out here when it’s too dark. You have a problem with going through the park?”
“Should I?”
“Yes. You should,” she said, walking quickly ahead of me with her coat wrapped tightly around her. I stayed a couple of feet behind, careful not to be sucked into her gravity of loathing toward me. She stopped only when we got to the entrance to the small park, which was little more than a run-down basketball court surrounded by a chain link fence and a child’s play area with a rusted slide.
“Shit,” she said, looking toward the court at the far end of the park. The same guys who harassed us earlier were playing basketball, but they hadn’t noticed us yet. Ruby looked to her left where the playground was. “We’ll go over towards the merry-go-round and walk around the perimeter. Don’t look at them. Just keep your eyes on the ground.” She threw her cigarette down on the cracked pavement and began walking briskly.
In the distance, the thuds of their sneakers and the echo of the basketball provided a menacing soundtrack as the men laughed and taunted each other. We made it almost halfway through the park when I could no longer hear the bouncing ball. What I did hear was, “Hey!”
“Eyes down,” Ruby reminded me.
“Hey! Y’all change ya mind ‘bout the party?” shouted one of them. This was followed by laughter from the group.
“Walk faster,” instructed Ruby.
“Won’t that get them going?” I asked.
“Too late. Just walk faster.”
When we sped up, one guy shouted, “Hey! Where y’all goin’?”
We started to move a little faster and that’s when we heard them running toward us. We made it to the other side of the park and exited through the main gate. We rounded a corner in between some tall, unkempt hedges, partially hiding us from the on-coming group. As soon as we rounded the corner, I saw the guy who was following us earlier, the same o
ne from the bar and the café. He was running toward me. I stopped, preparing to defend myself from him, but he leaped high into the air over me and came crashing down on one of the thugs from the basketball court.
I turned around to see that he knocked him unconscious while the other three caught up with Ruby. She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out some black powder. She blew it into the face of one of them while the guy from the bar easily took out the other two with his bare hands, sending them crashing to the ground.
The one who now had a face full of black powder stopped in his tracks, started looking around like he didn’t know where he was, and then began to scream. He fell backwards, got up and ran away, still screaming. The guy from the bar picked up one of the thugs and threw him over the fence. The other one started to beg for mercy. Bar Guy picked him up by the throat and said softly, “Leave.” He tossed him against the fence. The thug got up and ran away.
Bar Guy turned back toward us. Ruby had a very annoyed look on her face. “I could have handled that,” she said to him.
He smiled at her. “Didn’t look like you were handling it.”
“I was waiting to get them by surprise, which I would have done if you had just waited a few more seconds.”
“Sure,” he said, smirking, which only made Ruby more agitated. She stormed off in a huff. After she was out of ear shot, he said to me, “I guess she could have handled it, but how is that any fun for me?”
I looked him up and down nervously. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you,” he said.
“I wasn’t scared,” I lied, but I didn’t sound very convincing, not even to myself.
He politely stifled a laugh. “I’m Noah, by the way. Noah Dallion. I’m a friend of Ruby’s.”
“Yeah, I was shocked to find out she had friends,” I said, not realizing I just verbalized that thought.
Noah laughed loudly, showing off a charming smile. “She’s a lot nicer than she lets on.”
“Oh, I’m sure she is,” I said.
“Well, she’s nice to me, anyways.”
Nancy K. Duplechain - Dark Trilogy 02 - Dark Carnival Page 7