Echoes in the Bayou (16 page)

The
expression on his face was one of seriousness when he responded. "Ava of
course I feel the connection, I felt it your first night here. And I'm sorry
about Jeanette, I had no idea that she was going to barge in like that and
looking back now I should not have waited until the end of the night to tell
her to stay the hell out of my life. I need to apologize to you Ava, I never
meant to hurt you and I handled the whole situation like a coward. I'm sorry
and believe me, it won't happen again, Jeanette is out of my life; she's out of
our life," he said.

 "Magnus,
although I do believe that you could have handled things better I don’t believe
that you were cowardly about it. I want you to know that I will not be a
rebound girl, if we are going to even think about starting something, then I
need to know that I have you, mind, body, and soul. I won't allow myself to be
hurt again, is that understood?"

She
surprised herself by saying that just then,
but
she meant every word. No matter how strong her feelings were for him, she
wasn’t about to be set up for another fall. Especially by an ex fiancé.

Magnus
nodded his head in agreement, he understood what she was saying and the words
were like music to his ears. She'd said she wanted  to start something.
"Well I think we started something the first night you arrived Ava,"
he said with a sultry look in his eyes.

"You
know what I mean Magnus," she said
and
rolled her eyes.

"Ava,
I want you to do something for me," he said and looked at her pleadingly
.

"What
Magnus?
"

"Will
you put on your gown
for me?"

At first
she thought that he was joking but she could tell from the look in his eyes
that he was not, he was serious.

"What
for Magnus?"

"Just
please go upstairs and put it on. Then I need you to come back down and meet me
back here
."

Ava felt
the need to comply with his
request; she didn’t
need to know why. At that moment she simply wanted to please him.

"And
don’t forget to
wear the heels," he said in
a sensual, but demanding tone.

Ava did
as he requested and as she descended the s
tairway,
Magnus stood at the bottom with two glasses of champagne in his hands. He was
smiling at her and handed her a glass when she reached the bottom.

She could
hear music playing softly in the back ground and he led her into the
sitting  room where he had rearranged the furniture so that they could
dance.  The wall sconces were dimmed and the soft light that was coming
from them provided a romantic back drop to the  elegantly decorated room.

"Ava
it's my fault that you weren’t abl
e to have a
good time tonight so I thought I'd bring a little of the ambiance back. I know
it's not the same as being in the ballroom but…"

Ava
quieted his words with her mouth. She had never been romanced like this and she
didn’t want to waste time talking about
it.
"Shut up and dance with me," she said and wrapped her arms around his
neck.

"My
pleasure," he said and slowly, twirled her around the room
.

Very few
words were spoken during the night and as the sun began to rise they found
themselves still holding one another and swaying to the music. 
"Magnus thank you," she said and kissed him passionately.

"Thank
you for this special night.
"

"Your
very welcome," he returned her kiss. "And thank you for changing your
mind about leaving, I think you kno
w that I
could not live here without you."

A warm
smile was all that she could manage, for at that moment, words escaped her
.

"I'm
going to make us some breakfast," he said cheerfully and padded off to the
kitchen. During the course of the night both he and Ava had taken off their
shoes and had spent most of the night dancing barefoot.  "How about
we change out of these clothes first," Ava shouted after him as he made
his way into the kitchen.

"You
go ahead, I'll get the coffee started and I'll be up in a minute.
"

The
evening wasn’t a complete disaster after al
l
, she told herself as she wiggled out of her gown and
went in search of something comfortable to put on. After settling on a pair of
shorts and tank she tousled her hair and smiled at herself in the mirror.
"This is going to be the perfect day considering," she said out loud
and headed back down the stairs.  Neither one had gotten any sleep, but
she got the distinct feeling that like herself, Magnus was not tired.

Rain had
started to fall and the heavy drops pelted upon the roof. As she came down the
stairs, she thought she heard voices. Thinking that it was Sinta looking for
shelter from the storm Ava smiled and rushed into the kitchen.

She
stopped shor
t and dropped the smile when she saw
that it was not Sinta. "What the hell are you two doing here?"
She asked. Standing by the kitchen door brushing the rain off their clothes,
was Gavin and Melanie.

"Well
it's nice to see you too Ava," Gavin said. He was as smug as ever and she
couldn’t believe that the
betrayers
were standing right in front of her.

"I'll
say it again, what the hell are you two doing here?
"

"Come
on Ava, I'm still your boss and whe
n you
wouldn’t return my phone calls, this was all I could think to do."

"Actually it was my idea,"
Melanie interrupted. "Isn't that right?" She gently rubbed his back
.

"You two make me sick,"
she said and quickly turned her head
.

 
 Magnus wasn’t sure what to do, he'd been making
coffee when Gavin knocked on the door. Had they not introduced themselves,
Magnus would have taken the two for desperate salespeople looking to make a
quick buck but as it were, it was Ava's boss/ex-boyfriend and her ex best
friend standing in his doorway dripping wet from the rain.

"I
came to check on you Ava, you should be flattered," Gavin spoke with such
falseness that she wondered what it was about him that made her fall for him in
the first place.

"And
there's no need for introductions, we've already been introduced to
Mister DuPonte. Looks like the place is coming along
nicely Ava. I see you've got your work cut out for you though, there's still a
lot more to be done," he said in such a way that it made her feel as if
she were slacking.

"Gavin,
I know exactly what I need to do; you didn’t have to come all the way out here
to tell me that. There is this feature on cell phones; maybe you've heard of
it, it's called voicemail. Now if I were you, I'd leave now, can't you see that
a storm has just started? The road here floods very quickly so you better be on
your way," she said and tried to rush them out the door.

"Hold
on now, wait a minute. Melanie and I just got here for Christ's sake and
besides, I need to see the rest of this old place. It'll be time for an
appraisal once you get it staged and I need to survey the property, well the
inside at least.  The outside can wait until the storm passes."

The pai
r pushed by Ava and headed straight towards the
sitting room leaving Ava alone with Magnus.

"Ava,
I'm sorry, I had no idea of what they looked like so when I saw them I just
assumed that they were salespeople or more ghost hunters. I would have never
let them in had I known," he assured her.

"I
know that Magnus, I just can't believe that they showed up here and today of
all days. Now the storm has probably already flooded the only road into this
place and they'll be stuck here."

"Don’t
worry I'll go check on
the road, see if it's
passable. Just let me get changed."

Ava
didn’t want him to have to go
outside; it was
her company, unwanted company but her company none the less. She told Magnus
that she would go outside to check, she needed to get away from them for a
moment anyway. "And besides I need to find Sinta, I don’t want her outside
during this storm and I need an ally if god forbid they get stuck here,"
she said while slipping into an old pair of wellington boots

The wind had
picked up along with the rain and it was pounding against her face. Her hair
had become drenched and she wrapped her arms around herself. Just a few feet
further and she would be able to see whether or not the road was flooded. She
began calling for Sinta, even though she doubted that the old woman would be
able to hear her shouts through the intense shrilling of the wind and rain. The
sounds of the storm was growing louder and louder, so loud that she had to
cover her ears.

The
howling had now turned into a shrieking sound which caused her to become
disoriented. The house was no longer behind her and she found herself closer to
the bayou, her shouts for Sinta came out like whispers. Before long she was
standing in front of the big oak and a dark, menacing figure of a man dressed
in a black waist coat and ashen colored slacks, was bounding towards her, but
she couldn’t make out his face.

Ava knew
that it was John
DuPonte and as she turned to
run, her feet turned into cement, and her screams were locked in her throat. As
the figure approached her she shut her eyes and prayed for help. 

 "Ava!"
Gavin shouted as Magnus carried her over to the couch. Her legs were covered in
mud and she was soaking wet. To make matters worse, she didn’t remember a
thing. Sinta was making her way to the big house to seek shelter from the storm
when she saw Ava being thrown about by some invisible force.

"Miss
Ava look like a rag doll being thrown all round," Sinta shouted to Magnus
as they ran back out into the raging storm. When she had failed to come back
and he could no longer see her from the kitchen window, Magnus had changed into
his boots and was prepared to go out in search of her. The moment that he saw
Sinta running towards the house, he knew that Ava was in trouble.  By the
time they had gotten to her, she was unconscious and had almost been
buried by the mud. When Magnus picked her up he noticed several cuts, and
bruises that looked like hand prints along her arms and legs, her knees were
bleeding from where she fell.

Melanie
restrained Gavin from going to Ava. "They have it under control
Gavin," she said trying not to sound envious. "Let them take care of
her," she said and dragged him with her to the other side of the room. The
last thing Melanie wanted was for Gavin to offer any assistance. They weren’t
there for that, they were there to get the massive property listed so that they
could collect a large commission. And since Ava was dragging her feet on
getting the place staged, it had been her idea to make the trip to Louisiana
and try to get the ball rolling. "She's just doing this so that she can
waste more time," she whispered into Gavin's ear. "And who the hell
is that lady and why is she dressed like that?" She questioned.

 
"Ava can you hear me?" Magnus leaned down
close and wiped the spatter of mud from her face. "Please Ava, say
something."

A painful
moan escaped her lips as she opened her
eyes, it
took her a moment to register where she was and what had happened. The last
thing she remembered she told them, was that she was out in the storm calling
Sinta's name. Then a man appeared and as he made his way towards her she
panicked and must have blacked out.

 
"John DuPonte working on you Miss Ava, he's
getting' strong, his spirit leave 'da house now," she whispered so only
Magnus and Ava could hear.

"Jesus
Christ," Magnus ran his f
ingers through his
hair and stared intently at Ava.

"What
are we going to do?" He asked Sinta
.

"
Mister Magnus, Miss Ava, now I's knows you aint gon'
want to hear 'dis but we gots to conjure up 'dem spirits and we's gots to do it
tonight," she urged.

Ava s
queezed his hand, she knew that Magnus was worried
about her and she wanted him to know that despite a few bruises and being
covered in mud, John DuPonte had not hurt her.

"How
are we going to do that with them here?" He asked nodding his head in the
direction of Gavin and Melanie. The two stood oblivious to the other occupants
and ignored the conversation they were having. It was quite clear that whatever
had just happened to Ava did not bother them in the least bit.