Page 12 of Possessed By Shadows

Chapter 3

Irefused to listen to the audio. Which Lukas assured me contained more interesting data.Interesting. Not interesting to the guy who seemed to be some sort of meat sack for the ghosts to play with. I walked out. In my pajamas, nothing more than a pair of garden slippers on my feet, I left. I couldn’t help it. I needed to breathe and get the fuck out of there.

At that moment I was angry. Couldn’t help it. Lukas was treating me like I was some science experiment, while it was my life that was being thrown into a tailspin. If I’d stayed, I would have said something that would have ruined my relationship with my brother. And as strained as it already was, I didn’t want to cut him out of my life. Which was why I walked out into the dark and cold evening, with temperatures barely above freezing.

It didn’t actually surprise me that Micah followed. He appeared before I’d gotten halfway down the street, handing me a sweater he’d crocheted and his phone in hand. He was still dressed, but I doubted anyone would notice my pajamas. It was the New Orleans after all. A five-block walk and I could lose myself on Bourbon Street to the crowds of drunks and rowdy partygoers. It was a constant here. No matter the time of year. Though the crowds dwindled a little this late into the year, they were never gone. And since I didn’t want the cold barren streets, I headed for the noise and lights I knew never shut down.

Micah trailed a few feet behind, not speaking, but following with a soothing presence. Lukas didn’t come, or maybe he was hanging that far back. I think if I saw him at that moment, I’d have punched him.

Months of calm. Feeling mostly normal, having a real life, all to be stripped away by my brother’s bullshit games. I seethed.

Once we got to the rush of bars and crowds Micah sidled up close to me and took my hand. “Can I walk with you?” he asked softly.

“Sure,” I agreed. “Don’t know where I’m going.”

“It’s okay,” Micah soothed. “Take whatever time you need.” And I did. Wandering street to street, avoiding people with ease, but letting the night and sounds of humanity ease the rolling waves of anxiety that had been piling up inside all day.

There were a few times when I got close to someone and thoughtthat’s not a person, at least not an alive one.Did Micah see them all? I knew he was seeing more than he used to. My fault, maybe? But he didn’t react. He let me lead him around, turning each time I encountered something that didn’t seem quite right.

It was hard to explain the difference really. From a distance they looked like people, solid and real. I think it was something in my gut that recognized them first, usually with a mild clench when my gaze roamed over them. If I got too close a sense of unease rolled through me. I knew that didn’t happen with all ghosts. Did that mean the things I was seeing tonight were demons? Or as Micah called them,yokai?

I gripped Micah’s hand, and he didn’t try to speak, though I knew he was texting someone. Probably Lukas or Sky. I didn’t care as long as he stayed close to me.

With as bizarre as my life had been in the past year, I should have hated the night. Ghosts and demons stalked the darkness, or so superstition led us to believe. But that first demon in the desert I’d seen had appeared in the middle of the day. A fair share of crap happened at night. I didn’t think that had to do with the darkness as much as the lack of movement from the rest of the world. In the dark, the mostly empty streets, and starlit skies leant energy to things that might not be noticed in the bustle of a busy day.

It was a bit creepy to think of it that way. But everyone had been calling me crazy for a while. Might as well lean into it, I thought, gripping Micah’s hand tight.

All the shadows or ghost-like things we passed at a distance and none of them looked my way. Either uninterested, or they didn’t notice me. Sometimes I wondered if we existed on parallel planes, only sometimes crossing paths when the world converged. But that was a lot for my brain to work out after apparently being a zombie for a week.

Not much other than the bars open this late. We walked in a giant circle. If Micah hadn’t brought me the sweater I’d have been freezing by now, especially when we crossed near the river, passing the Café du Monde and the sweet smell of sugar and bitter coffee. I was tempted to stop. It was almost supernatural how much food could draw a person in down here. But my head wasn’t clear yet, and I didn’t want to stew in it.

The architecture of the strips of buildings always fascinated me. Even in the dark they looked like an old French town rather than the American hub of debauchery it was known for. I had most of the shops memorized; had tried the food in all of them. Micah was not a fan of seafood of any kind, but was fine with the many confection shops peppering the riverfront. There was even a quirky shop that sold Christmas ornaments year-round which were sexy men dressed up as fairies or mermen. I’d begun to collect them even though we never planned to have a Christmas tree, and our holiday had consisted of a few days off and a mix of eclectic food.

Micah told me about the cult-like following of KFC for Christmas in Japan. He had explained it was a bit of a thing to get a big meal and then have sex with your loved one. Something calledLove Hotelswere often booked months in advance, and the meal had to be ordered well ahead of time. I thought it was strange, but rewarded him with Christmas sex anyway, for which he’d laughed. We hadn’t had KFC, instead choosing some spicy sausage, rice and beans, and a swath of sweets I could barely recall the names for.

I couldn’t help laughing a little at the memory.

“What?” Micah asked.

“Just remembering Christmas,” I said, tugging him closer so I could wrap an arm around him. “The KFC craziness.”

“It’s a bit of a weird holiday. But the American Christmas is odd too. Fat man breaking into people’s houses to eat cookies and give gifts?”

“Truth,” I agreed. I liked our version better. Food, sex, and snuggles. Giving things to others had been amazing. I still felt uncomfortable about all the gifts we’d received from his family. Even Sky had given us a gift card to our favorite restaurant. Lukas hadn’t given us anything. Though we’d given him a new quilt and some gnome wall hangings. He hadn’t moved from his tiny flat to his new house yet. The new house needed a lot of repairs. I had not more than looked at it from the outside. Haunted. Ants on Micah’s skin when we walked by.

And again, I was angry. Lukas constantly doing these things that brought the supernatural into my life. I didn’t get it. He’d had a normal job. Why give that up to chase ghosts? Because I could see what he couldn’t? Because he was intent on proving me right? Or wrong? I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

There was one shop open near the end of the strip and before the wide spread of the French Market would begin. I’d walked past it a dozen times during the day, never finding it open. It glowed with neon signs of crystal balls and offers of tarot readings. Door wide open to the street.

Sky read cards. She was wildly accurate too, but her readings were rarely positive. Micah said she hadn’t learned a way to spin the results enough to see the good in every reading, and that scared a lot of people. Even if the readings weren’t really a bad sign of things to come, it sometimes sounded that way. Sky offered to read a spread for me, but I always refused, not willing to put a burden of bad news on her shoulders. But now? I veered toward that shop, feeling a pull and a need to know.

Micah’s grip tightened. “Alex.”

“It’s fine,” I promised. Though I didn’t have my phone or my wallet, so I suspected I’d get nothing out of going inside, but I ducked in anyway. The shop was narrow and filled with trinkets and the scent of incense. Had this been where Lukas had gotten all that crap from? It looked a bit like part of our shop, mass-market cheap shit that tourists loved. Though near the counter were more handmade items, from incense holders to jewelry.

The woman behind the counter was beautiful with dark teak skin and a colorful head wrap. She had a thick shawl wrapped around her shoulders to ward off the chill from the open door.

“If it isn’t the beautiful duo from Simply Crafty. What brings you boys out this late and across the Quarter?” Her accent was all New Orleans. I couldn’t help but smile at her. The shop might have felt a little dark and dangerous, but she exuded warmth and joy.