Punished (13 page)

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I lied as I slowly un-wrapped his arm from my shoulder, just to avoid any drama.

The truth was. I wasn’t fine. I was mortified that she was going to see me covered in mud and all sweaty. It would only confirm all the nasty things that she had said to me last summer. At least Tony was nowhere in sight.

“Dear lord, what happened to you?” asked Mrs. Scott when she caught sight of my tragic state.

I gave her a bright smile and pretended that everything was cool. “I got lost.”

“Lucus found her.” Sabrina beamed at him and seized his arm again. She brushed a lock of hair off his cheek, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.

“I see, you girls have to try the pralines. They are heavenly. I swear, I’ve gained ten pounds since I’ve been here!” Mrs. Scott demonstrated her minuscule frame.

“Don’t be silly Mrs. Scott, you look beautiful,” said Lucus.

“Well then, I’m going to go help myself to some more pralines. See you young ones later.”

“Arelia, what a surprise. What are you doing here?” asked Mrs. Dreaux. She looked me up and down with her bird-like eyes and gave me one of her phony smiles. She wore a classic black Chanel dress and her foundation was piled on ten layers thick. “I see nothing has changed, still unkempt as ever.”

I wanted to shout:
“Screw you! You horse-faced pretentious witch.”
However, in front of a bunch of guests that would have made
me
look like the crazy one.

So, I gave her my sweetest smile and said, “I’m just helping out for the summer. What brings you here?”

“I couldn’t miss getting a glimpse of Darkwood and into the life of the richest family in New Orleans, now could I? So, you’re helping out, are you?” she asked, as she slowly sipped her sweet tea. She turned to Lucus and said, “You better keep an eye on this one. She always has a way of squeezing in where she doesn’t belong.” She gave him a small smile, and I clawed my nails into my skin. “I’m sure your parents don’t want any trouble.”

Lucus tossed her a stony smile and said, “I’m not sure what you mean Mrs. Dreaux, Arelia’s not squeezing in anywhere. We’re lucky to have her. Now, if you excuse me, I have guests to attend to. I’ll let you ladies catch up.”

He gave me a small wink, as he headed towards an immensely disappointed and frustrated Mr. Dumpty who was complaining about a lack of sugar in the sweet-tea. As I watched Lucus calm Mr. Dumpty down by offering him several free Darkwood souvenirs, I couldn’t help but smile.

Mrs. Dreaux’s shrill voice snapped me out of my happy place as she turned her attention to Sabrina. “I see that your parents are still in
Morocco
Sabrina, I haven’t seen them here.” She stressed the word Morocco as if it was some contagious disease.

Ouch, touchy subject.

I looked over at Sabrina and saw her cheeks turn bright red, highlighting her sunburn even more. “They’re actually in Milan.” She blatantly lied.

“Oh, I see.” Mrs. Dreaux flashed her a quick smile. “I haven’t seen your mother around for quite some time. We missed her dearly at the annual Spring Fundraiser.”

Sabrina licked her lips and crossed her arms. “I’ll be sure to give her your best. I see that you’ve visited Dr. Morris.
 
He does wonders with getting rid of those nasty crow’s feet, doesn’t he? My mom swears by him. Your lips look plumper too.
 
They look fabulous, but a few more injections and you’ll be treading in the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills territory.”

Mrs. Dreaux’s veiny hands clutched her glass, and I let out a low snicker.

I needed to get Sabrina out of there before she started a full on war. I grabbed her hand and said, “Excuse us Mrs. Dreaux, we have to go see if they need any help in the kitchen.”

Before she could respond, I dragged Sabrina into the house. When we got there, she exploded. “She’s such a bitch! She thinks she’s so perfect because she married the third richest guy in New Orleans. God, everyone knows that he constantly cheats on her. Tony is super lucky that he looks nothing like her! Don’t even get me started on her hair and new veneers! Does she honestly think we can’t see that her teeth are fake? They look like horse teeth!!!”

For the next ten minutes, Sabrina proceeded to fume over Mrs. Dreaux. Her already sun burnt cheeks started to get even redder with every insult she dished out. “Did you hear how she said the word Morocco? Argh! How did you survive working at her hotel last summer?” she asked.

I shrugged. “She wasn’t around that much.” I didn’t want to talk about last summer because that would mean confessing that I had fallen for her demon spawn, Tony.

“She doesn’t give a crap about my mom; she’s just bringing her up to sound superior!”

“Arelia, what have you gotten yourself into?” Aunt Mae’s shocked voice interrupted Sabrina’s little rant. “Sabrina, how many times have I told you that you need to use real sunscreen if you’re running around in the scorching New Orleans sun? You look like a lobster, child.”

“Really?” Sabrina immediately panicked and pulled out her Chanel compact. “It’s not that bad.” She started to layer more foundation on top of her blistering skin. “Where did Lucus go?” she asked, while mindlessly patting her face.

Aunt Mae firmly steered her down the hall and towards the spiral staircase. “The only place you’re going is upstairs and straight to the bath. I need you to look presentable for dinner. We need to make a good impression on the new guests, don’t we now?”

“But I want to see Lucus,” she whined, as she reluctantly stomped up the stairs.

“Upstairs.” Aunt Mae obviously wasn’t going to give into Sabrina’s demands. “Arelia, you come with me.”

She took my arm and pulled me into her office. Her green eyes narrowed in on my mud-stained face. She pulled on her aquamarine beads for a few minutes before she spoke. “You went to Louis’ cabin, didn’t you?” she finally asked.

 
“Yes,” I reluctantly admitted. “I think I made contact with him. He led me to his journal. Well, it was Ayida who spoke to me first, but then I had this bizarre vision and I swear I was actually feasted on by rats.” I showed her the book.

“Rats?" asked Aunt Mae, as ran her fingers over the journal slowly, she took in its scent and shook her head in disapproval. “Arelia, Louis wants you to get close to him for one reason or another. However, I can sense that he’s an angry soul and tends to act violently at times. Those rats were a manifestation of his rage.”

“How was I able to feel them? They were so real. I swear they were there, but then all of a sudden they just disappeared.”

“You need to understand that, in voodoo, psychological attacks are just as common as physical attacks. Louis was able to successfully enter your conscious and make you feel his fear and helplessness. I suppose he chose them because there must have been hundreds of rats running around out in those cabins.”

“But how?” There was no way I was going to let Louis mess with my body and mind.

Aunt Mae shook her head. “There are so many ways one can go about this; voodoo dolls, sacrifices, calling upon a spirit to help through prayers and chants. Not one practitioner takes the same route.”

“I was able to make them go away, they left eventually. I have no idea how, but they did.”

“Did you consciously wish them away with all your strength?” asked Aunt Mae.

“Yeah, I did. It was hard.
 
For a few seconds, I was tempted let them devour me.”

Aunt Mae’s voice was severe. “Never give into an attack. Those rats left because you were convinced they weren’t real. If you would have given into them and convinced yourself that they were there, they would have easily manifested into physical form. Louis cannot be trusted, and you need to be prepared at all times.”

 
“But look.” I opened the notebook and showed her Louis’ dramatic professions of undying love. “He can’t be all bad.”

Aunt Mae’s bright eyes softened as they read over some of the passages.

“Do you have any idea who the girl is? I asked. “Do you think she was a slave, too?”

Aunt Mae sighed softly. “I’m not certain; Darkwood records don’t indicate that Louis was ever involved with anyone. From what I heard, he was extremely quiet, polite and kept to himself most of the time, but things change. You cannot expect Louis to be the same man he was centuries ago. This innocent boy is gone, and I’m afraid, the anger and bitterness has taken over. If he has alternative plans, you must be alert at all times. You are never to go to his cabin again, do you hear?”

“Lucus isn’t bitter,” I argued. “If he’s okay then why can’t Louis be okay, too? I think that he just wants me to help him.”

She shook her head vigorously. “They’ve had very different experiences; you cannot compare them to one another.”

I let out a low frustrated sigh and tugged on my mud-caked hair. “Then what am I supposed to do? Be scared of him? The only way I can help Lucus is by getting closer to Louis. I think he’s a ghost.
 
He has to be a ghost.”

“Until we know for sure what his intentions are or what he wants with you, you need to protect yourself.”

She turned to her fully stocked herb shelf and pulled down some random ingredients. “You need to make a protective gris-gris for yourself and wear it at all times; red-brick dust needs to be placed outside of your bedroom door. All corners of your room need to be anointed with Fiery Wall of Protection oil, and starting tonight you need to light a black seven day candle. You’ve been avoiding creating your own scared space, but you have to do that as soon as possible, complete with an altar dedicated to Erzulie. These are all small steps that you can take to defend yourself on a day to day basis against him.”

My eyes glazed over as she rattled off a huge list of things that I apparently needed to do to protect myself against Louis’ very handsome ghost. “I don’t think he’s that dangerous, he was really cute, actually. He kind of looked like Bruno Mars.”

Aunt Mae looked up from her desk; her full lips were twisted with disapproval. “You’re not taking this seriously Arelia; do I have to remind you what happened last night?”

That shut me up. “No,” I mumbled, as I examined the dirt under my fingernails. “Do you think he sent that spirit? Is that even possible?”

“Anything is possible. Louis was the son of Marie, an infinitely powerful queen.
 
I’m positive he knows how to control spirits even from beyond the grave. Now sit down.”

She pointed at the wooden chair in front of her. “You have to learn how to make your own gris-gris charm,” she said, as she walked over to me and chopped off a lock of my hair.

“What the hell!” I fumed. “Why do you need my hair?” I never understood the connection between voodoo and hair. At home, grand-mere never made dolls or gris-gris bags. She bought all hers from Mambo Clara, so I had come to think of hair as something to make a doll look prettier.

Aunt Mae laughed. “I see Bea hasn’t taught you a thing, has she? You don’t even know the significance of hair? My poor child.”

I shrugged. “She doesn’t really practice that much, but I’m constantly reminded that spirits are never to be messed with.”

She held up my hair. “This isn’t just hair; this is a piece of your soul. When you mix it with the other items in the gris-gris charm, you’re protecting your soul. Always be cautious of who you let near, you never know what they’re capable of.” Her tone was dark and enigmatic. Her eyes radiated with fury.

I slowly nodded. “Got it, don’t let strange people touch you. I pretty much learned that lesson in kindergarten.”

She ignored me. “Gris-Gris bags are never to have more than thirteen ingredients in them and never less than three. Odd numbers are needed at all times, do you understand?”

I watched her intently, as she arranged what appeared to be some sort of altar.