The Ghosts Of New Orleans (A PARANORMAL RESEARCH AND CONTAINMENT DIVISION (PRCD) CASE FILE) (7 page)

Eloise, a little surprised by his
change in attitude, grabbed her robe and marched into the bathroom.  With the
door firmly locked, she called out.

“Well, fine, why don’t you go help
Sally with the tea.  I’ll be out in ten minutes.”

She swore she could hear a chuckle
as she heard her bedroom door close.

“So, Major, what’s the scoop on you
two?” asked Sally, when Paul walked back into the common area.  She pulled
three large mugs out of the cabinet and placed them on the counter near the
stove.

Paul tilted his head and narrowed
his eyes. “I beg your pardon?”

Sally chortled. “Oh, you do that REALLY
well.  You just about intimidated me.”

She pulled herself up onto the
counter and smiled.

Paul had to stifle a chuckle
himself. “Do you often poke your nose into the business of others?”

Nodding her head enthusiastically,
she nodded. “Sure, I do – it’s how you learn and I love to learn. But,
actually, and more to the point, as a paranormal researcher there are often
links to relationships and power.”

Paul shook his head. “I’m sorry, I
don’t follow you.”

She grabbed a carrot out of a bowl
on the counter, took a tiny bite and then responded, “Researchers often look
back at folk stories or wives tales to discover if the story has any basis of
truth. Recently, a study was done based on a series of fairy tales.”

Grabbing a carrot for himself, Paul
perched on the edge of a stool.

“Are you telling me that
researchers have found that Cinderella really existed?”

Sally rolled her eyes. “No, what I
am telling you is that love conquers all.”

Paul choked on the carrot for a
minute, cleared his throat and asked, “What did you just say?”

She grinned. “Well, most
researchers would call your reaction quite interesting.”

Paul narrowed his eyes and
frowned.  “Most researchers would be worried that they would be transferred to Alaska.”

Sally laughed.  “Wow! Threats too.
You are good.”

Then her tone changed and she
folded her arms across her chest and looked pointedly at Paul.

“Look, I don’t care what went on
between you two in the past.  But you have to know you saved her life today.”

Paul nodded. “Yeah, she mentioned
that to me.”

“Okay, good. But I don’t think she
realizes it wasn’t just because you happened to lift her up at the right time
or you somehow interrupted the cosmic forces against her.  The only reason you were
able to save her is because she loves you.”

Paul shook his head, stood up and
walked across the room, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand, “No, you’re
wrong, researchers are wrong, the whole damn world is wrong. I walked away from
whatever love Eloise could have had for me a long time ago.”

She shrugged. “I didn’t say she
knew she loved you.  I didn’t say she will ever acknowledge that she loves you.
But you have to know it and believe it, in order to protect her.”

Paul stopped and ran his hand across
his forehead. “So, this isn’t a happily ever after kind of thing?”

She shook her head. “No, it’s not. 
And, quite frankly, if you went up to her and told her what I just told you –
she’d probably run away from you.”

“And I wouldn’t be able to protect
her.”

Sally nodded and smiled sadly. “You
got it!”

They both heard the bedroom door
open.  Sally looked at Paul.

“Now wipe that sad puppy-dog look
off your face and be the big mean bad-ass military man we both know you love to
be.”

He smiled. “You really are
brilliant.”

 “Yeah, it’s tough,” Sally admitted
with a grin, “but somebody’s got to do it.”

“I think you are both nuts,” Paul
said, folding his arms across his chest. “And I’m not going to be a part of
this scheme.”

He stood in the center of the
common room, Sally was perched on the computer desk and Eloise was seated
cross-legged in the office chair.         

“Paul, I think Sally’s right.  This
is the best way to catch her.”

He turned to Eloise in amazement. “Excuse
me; didn’t you just nearly get pulled in again?  Didn’t you just nearly die? 
Why would you want to place yourself in jeopardy?”

“Paul,” Sally began, “What is a
better choice, to send Eloise back in a controlled situation where we can
monitor her and help her if needed, or slowly pursue the investigation and
leave Eloise open to another unprepared attack?”

He shook his head. “Yeah, but
you’re not entirely sure that she’s going to be safe in your controlled
situation.”

 “I’ll be a lot safer than if I’m
caught off guard again,” Eloise insisted, “At least this way perhaps we can
learn more about the person who is behind all of this.”

He paced the perimeter of the small
common area and rubbed his forehead. Finally, he turned and faced Eloise.

“Do you really want to do this?”

Eloise nodded definitely. “Yes. Yes
I do.”

Paul shook his head and sighed.

“Fine, let’s do it. Sally, tell me
what you want me to do.”

Sally slipped off the desk and
slowly examined the room.  Finally, she turned to Eloise and said, “I think
this chair is the best place, unless of course you would be more comfortable in
your bed?”

Eloise shook her head. “More
comfortable for what?”

“Well,” Sally explained,
nonchalantly. “In order to be safe on your journey, you need to be rooted to us
at the base camp.  So, basically you need to be in Paul’s arms throughout the
experiment.”   

“Well, in that case,” Paul paused
for a moment as if he were reflecting on the choices, “I really think it ought
to be the bed.”

Eloise swung around to argue with
him and saw the grin on his face. She shook her head and turned back to Sally.
“The chair. Definitely the chair.”

Eloise stood and Paul sat down on
the chair.  Then Eloise sat tentatively on the edge of the chair next to him.

Sally shook her head.  “No, sorry,
that’s not going to work,” she explained, “You need to be grounded to him – not
on the next continent.  Climb into his lap and put your arms around his neck. 
And Paul, put your arms around her and hold her tight.”

Eloise moved hesitantly onto Paul’s
lap.  She laid her hands timidly on his shoulders.  Paul placed his arms around
her in a loose hold, trying as hard as he could not to actually touch her.

Sally looked up to the ceiling and
swore.  Then she marched over to Paul and Eloise.

“Okay, this isn’t a blind date or
the prom,” she said harshly, “I realize on certain levels you are uncomfortable
with this, and I’m okay with that.  However, I never run an experiment with
half-assed participation, so either you’re both with me, or you’re both not.”

She walked across the room, sat on
one of the stools and folded her arms across her chest. “Paul, Eloise is going
back to the beach. She will be met there by a monster who wants to drown her. And
Eloise, do you remember the laughter, how it felt?  Do you remember the fear? 
Do you remember the water washing between your legs? Paul is your link, your
only link to survival.”

Paul pulled Eloise closer against
his chest.  His arms tightened around her and he laid his head on top of hers. 
Eloise buried her head against Paul’s chest and wrapped her arms tightly around
his neck.  She could feel his breath against her back, warm and comforting.

“Better,” Sally said, “much better.
Okay, Eloise I want you to try to remember what happened just before your last
episode.”

Eloise turned her head toward
Sally, “We were talking about Lalaurie and madness.  Paul said something about
the holocaust.”

Sally nodded, “And you said that is
wasn’t madness it was evil.”

Eloise felt hazy for a moment. Then
she shook her head to clear it.

“What just happened,” asked Sally.

“I was dizzy for a second,” Eloise
said, “But it’s gone now.”

Sally looked at Paul. “Loosen your
grip.”

“What?” Paul asked in disbelief.

“You’re holding her too tight – she
can’t go.  Loosen your grip.”

Paul looked down at Eloise, lying
in his arms.  “I’m having a real hard time with this,” he said softly, “Can we
look for another way?”

Eloise shook her head. “No, I’m
afraid that this is the only way.”

Paul nodded slowly. “Okay, but
before I loosen my grip, I want to make sure that you remember what you’ve left
behind.”

Paul looked down at her for a
moment, and then slowly lowered his face to hers.  He tightened his hold and
pulled her against his body.  He crushed her lips with his and kissed with an
intensity that left her breathless and wanting more. After a moment, he lifted
his head and stared into her eyes, “Remember me, wherever you go, remember me.”

He shifted slightly, loosening his
grip on her – only holding lightly to her shoulders.

Eloise lifted her hands to her
slightly bruised lips and looked up at Paul.  She started to speak to him when
the room began to fade before her eyes. In seconds she was back at the same
marshy area she had seen earlier.  This time, though, she had a plan.

Eloise scanned the area for
landmarks.  She could see the remains of a concrete harbor about a mile down. 
The land itself seemed to jut out into the ocean, like a peninsula.  She turned
away from the water and saw a rise just beyond the lowlands that blocked her
view of the vista beyond.

“You have strong power.”

Eloise turned quickly to face the
speaker.  An incredibly beautiful white woman stood before her.  Her dark hair
curled around her pale skin and green eyes. She wore a low cut satin gown and
she carried a whip.  Eloise saw the evil, the madness, in her eyes.

“Madame Delphine Lalaurie,” Eloise
stated.

She nodded regally. “So, you know
who I am. You are smarter than I thought.”

“I have friends, powerful friends,
who are not happy with what you are trying to do here.”

Delphine shrugged. “You refer to
Maria Leveau, I presume?”

Surprised, Eloise nodded.  “Yes,
she is one.”

“She cannot bother me,” she
laughed, “The destruction of New Orleans, the death of so many, has left her
very weak.”

“Which is why you are trying this
now and have not done so in the past,” Eloise said.

Delphine laughed. “You are a clever
girl.  Yes, it is because of her weakness that I am able to try.  In the past, New Orleans has been spared and Maria’s powers have kept me away from the souls of the
departed.  Now that she is weak, I will become even stronger than she ever
was.”

“No,” Eloise countered, “You will
never be as strong as Maria. She is free because she loves – you are captive
because you destroy.”

Delphine glided around Eloise, her
face filled with rage.

“This has nothing to do with love,”
she spat out, “This has to do with science.”

Eloise shook her head. “I
understand both science and love – your experiments had nothing to do with
either.”

Delphine’s face soured. “No, if I
had been a man, I would have been considered brilliant. People would have come
from around the world to witness my experiments. But because it was not
socially acceptable for a woman to have a brain, I was castigated.”

“You were using people like laboratory
mice,” Eloise countered, “You had no right.”

She lifted the whip as if to strike
Eloise, but Eloise stood her ground and stared back.

“I had every right,” Delphine
stated, “They belonged to me.”

“No, they belonged to no one,”
Eloise stated, “And even if you didn’t understand the unfairness of slavery,
there was no way you could justify your treatment of those poor souls!”

Delphine shrugged and dropped the
whip to her side.

“I don’t need to justify myself to
anyone, least of all you.”

Eloise shook her head slightly.
“Someday we all need to justify our lives to someone.”

Delphine glided slowly around
Eloise, once again, her bare feet leaving no mark in the marshy ground.  Eloise
stood steadfastly, breathing softly, trying to control the itch of panic.

“You fear me.”

Eloise could see the glitter of
madness increase in her eyes.

Eloise shook her head.  “I seek to
understand you and your power.”

Delphine acknowledged the answer
with a smile; she could understand the search for power. “Yet, you yourself
have great power.”

Eloise shook here head. “I have a
gift.”

Delphine shook her head in
disagreement.  “It is not of your sight that I speak, it is of your other
power.  It rests upon you now.  It guards you now.”

“But can it protect you always?”
Delphine continued, stopping in front of Eloise.

“I only want to help those who have
died find their way to the other side,” Eloise said, trying to change the
subject.

“And why do you do this?”

Eloise shrugged. “It is a gift, it
is a responsibility.  I could do no less.”

Delphine smiled. “Yes, so noble, so
true.” 

Delphine spat on the ground.  “I
was like you once – obedient, dutiful, boring.  But then I found a different
way, a more exciting way, and a way that gave me the power that I craved.”

“And you became a slave to the
power.”

Delphine lifted her head and
laughed.  The sound reminded Eloise of the sea crashing against the shore. She
began to feel anxious. Could Paul really save her?

Delphine smiled. “You think you
understand me?  You think I regret my life, my choices?”

Delphine’s eyes changed, filling
with the grays and browns of an angry ocean.  She lifted her hands above her
head and lightening crashed down at the edge of the shore.  She laughed again,
this time her laughter was mixed with madness.

“Perhaps I must allow you to visit
with those you seek to help.”

Eloise gasped as her body was
lifted from the ground.  She was held there, suspended in the air. She
shouldn’t have trusted Sally or Paul. And she was going to pay for her mistake.

Delphine laughed. “So much for your
great power!”

As if shot from a cannon, Eloise
was hurled out into the gulf.  She flew over the small islands of the wetlands.
She saw the whitecaps of the waves. She flew past the buoys.  Soon the land was
just a part of the distant horizon.  

Eloise tried to scream, but just as
in the nightmares she experienced as a child, the scream was caught in her
throat.

She looked down at the swirling
waters tossing below her, and then suddenly she stopped moving.  She hung,
suspended above the water for a moment, and then was thrust into the cold, deep
waters of the gulf.  She felt the waters close over her head as her body was pushed
down to the depths.

As she sank, the murkiness of the
water cleared.  Eloise kicked her legs and spun her arms, trying to swim back
to the surface.  She felt something close around her left ankle.  Peering down,
she saw a bloated hand grasping her leg.  She tried to kick it off, but it
began to pull her deeper into the depths, into a mass of what looked like
seaweed.  As she got closer, she could tell that it wasn’t seaweed, it was
human hair.

She was being pulled into a sea of
bodies, those who had been swept out into the gulf by the power of the
hurricane.  She felt hands and arms scrape against her body, catch on her
clothing, and snagging her hair.  She twisted and pulled, trying to escape the
human trap that Delphine had set for her. 

Her lungs wanted to burst from lack
of air. She could feel oxygen deprivation setting in, the light-headedness and
spots before her eyes.

“Oh, God,” she thought, as she was
caught tighter in the human web, “I am going to die.”

She thought about Paul and the last
kiss they shared.  She raised her hand to her lips to feel the memory of the
kiss one last time.

Suddenly, she was caught by strong
arms and pulled out of the water. She gasped and felt the air force its way
into her lungs.  She shuddered and coughed up sea water.

The strong arms enfolded her and bent
her over so she could cough out the rest of the water. Then she was turned and
held against a strong and familiar chest. 

“Okay, I’ve got blankets,” she
could hear Sally’s voice from what seemed like a long way away. “Come on Paul,
lift her up for a second, I have to get these around her.”

Eloise felt herself being cocooned
in a soft dry blanket.