Page 37 of Stalked By Shadows
“Took me over an hour and a dozen wrong turns I’m sure. So it’s probably best if I can see your tour during the day, maybe help get my bearings.”
“Yeah?”
“Sure. We don’t go in any of these places, right? It’s only a walking street tour?”
“Correct.”
“Then I think we’re good. I’ll tell you if I see any creepies and you tell me if you feel any crawlies.” I got up and headed into Lukas’ closet to find something to wear. I only had a handful of things that I’d gotten from a second hand store for cheap. Most of Lukas’ things would fit, but his clothes were all stuffy detective. How did he not melt in this heat? “It’s so damn hot outside.”
“It will turn cold soon. The rain is usually the trigger. One day you’re sweltering in the heat and humidity, then you’re drowning in icy rain. You can wear shorts, if you want,” Micah added. “I’m not picky about the shop. Though I’d prefer you wear a T-shirt from the shop.”
“The one I got yesterday was Lukas’s. I don’t know if he has more.” I found a pair of shorts in a bottom drawer and another drawer was filled with random T-shirts. A lot of which were from Simply Crafty. “Well what do you know?” I picked a shirt that read: ‘Do I look like I speak fluent ghost to you?’ It was black with white writing.
“That one glows in the dark,” Micah remarked.
“Yeah?” I glanced his way as I put on the clothes, not caring that he watched. Did he see the scars? Judge that he could see my ribs? Or that Lukas’s shorts hung a little loosely on my hips? I guess I was laying it all out there for him. We could be friends, or more, but only if we were real with each other. “Easier to find me in the dark later, then, right?”
“True,” he agreed. “Wear good shoes if you have them. We have a lot of ground to cover. At least the rain stopped. Now it’s just humid.”
I sighed. Better than the sweltering desert, I suppose, and the shadow monsters who stalked them.
Chapter 13
As proof of how small the area of the Quarter was, we ran into Jared in Jackson Square. He looked up and saw us then waved his arms in our direction like he was landing a plane. Since he was no longer in police custody, I took that as a good sign that they didn’t have anything bad to hold him on, and wondered if they had found Sarah.
“Hey Jared,” I greeted him. He looked tired, bedraggled, and almost strung out. “Are you okay? Should I call someone for you?”
He shook his head and stepped into my space, grabbing my shirt. At first I thought he might hit me, but he kept shaking his head. Tears fell down his face. “She’s missing, man. It took her. No one will listen to me. No one will help me find her. No one believes me.”
Micah stiffened beside me.
“Have you talked to the police?” I asked Jared. “Told them everything you saw?”
“Yes. Fuck.” He let me go and stepped back to scrub at his face. “I should never have listened to that guy. He said that your tour was boring history and we should experience the real thing. Promised he would show us a voodoo ceremony. Sarah didn’t want to. She wanted to stick to the ghost tour. But I convinced her to go. Now she’s gone.”
“What happened?” I asked. “What did you see?” Had he seen the shadow? Had it been the same shadow that reached for Micah that had taken Sarah?
“I don’t know. Darkness? It was gross. I mean, I never thought he’d kill real animals. And he took something from the grave that was open. Gave it to that woman. Then it all went to hell.”
“What woman?” Micah asked. Neither of us had seen anyone else at the graveyard, but maybe there was more the police weren’t telling us.
“Mary Voodoo or whatever her name was. She said she was a descendant of Marie Laveau. She helped that guy with the ceremony. Sarah didn’t want to stay when they started killing animals. We started back to the gate and called for the guy who let us in.”
“Why did he even let you in?” Micah wanted to know. “With animals?” And since it had been his night, I wondered why they’d been let in at all.
“That guy said he had a deal with the guard. They paid him a stack of cash. Said it was so we could get a real experience.” Jared paced. “The cops think I did something. But they have video of us entering the cemetery. They searched the whole thing and no sign of Sarah. That Mary woman was gone too.” He shivered. “We were headed back to the gate and I felt something. God, I’ve never felt anything so awful in my life.”
“Doom,” Micah whispered.
Jared nodded, his eyes huge. “Sarah’s hand was in mine. I looked back because she stopped, and something black rose up like a void and she was gone. It ripped her right out of my arms. I ran. That’s when I found you guys.”
“Did you tell the police all of this?” I asked, though I wasn’t sure what they could do about voodoo ceremonies gone wrong and possible demons summoned from the depths. The scariest part was that it sounded a lot like what I’d experienced in the desert. Only Sarah wasn’t killed, at least not yet, I hoped. Wouldn’t the police have mentioned it if they’d found her DNA? If he’d been running from something and she’d been taken and killed, wouldn’t we have found something away from the open grave? There was a reason my brother was the detective and I was the hobo. I hated mysteries. My brain often followed them off in a thousand illogical directions, meanwhile Lukas would be thinking about who took the girl and how to get her back. Common sense versus irrational sense.
“Yes, but they think I did something. They even suggested I go to the hospital to have myself looked at.”
Because they thought he was crazy. Yeah, I’d heard that before.
“Have you slept?” I asked him. “Maybe gotten a little rest in case you’ve forgotten something that might help?” He looked like he hadn’t slept in a week.