VooDoo Follies (19 page)

"Adrianna," Auntie smiled at me
and continued on, "Adrianna didn't walk away from your circle for
no reason. There was a purpose to it. She brought you to Stephen,
who you were destined to know, maybe even destined to help." She
patted my leg and reached for more tissue. "Then you were the one
who ran into Trevor on his first day at school."

"I ran into the principal,
actually."

"You ran into your destiny again,
Seraphine." She handed me the tissue now, because the tears were
back and flowing steadily. "I don't know if you were destined to
love these boys, or just help them. Maybe you can't help them
without loving them first, I don't know." She pushed the curls that
had fallen in my face back behind my ears. "Seraphine, you are my
pride and joy. There is so much more to you than you have ever
acknowledged. You shine in the midst of all the dull people in this
world. I know your gift has never been to see auras. That's mine,
and it's mine for a reason. Just like being able to see your boys
was your gift for a reason. You're aura is pure golden light,
Seraphine. You are an angel among mortals, and this is part of your
destiny, to give these boys the lives they desire." She wiped away
some of the tears that were still streaming down my cheeks. "If you
put that love into your ritual, I have to believe that you will
make it happen."

"But what then?" I looked up as I
heard something at the doorway.

"Sorry," Trevor said, "we weren't
sure if we should come back.

"It's okay." I said, reassuring
Trevor that he hadn't done anything wrong and letting my auntie
know they were in the room now.

"Everything has a reason, baby
girl, remember that." I looked up as Trevor backed out of the room
and Stephen walked in just as my auntie was finishing, "maybe, this
is a second chance for more than just Stephen's life. Maybe it's a
second chance for yours too. You have to stop living as a ghost
yourself. You tell me such lonely tales about walking the halls of
your school without seeing anything. You tell me about shutting
yourself away and being lonely because you miss home. You, my dear
girl, had forgotten to live until these boys came into your life.
The dead have their purpose, it's to make the living remember why
they need to go on." I looked up again to see Stephen smiling down
at me.

"I see why you tell your Auntie
Perrine everything."

"Yeah, she's amazing."

"So are you." Stephen walked back
out of the room after saying it, but I knew why he did. He had
always been the shy one who watched me from afar. It was hard for
him to let me know how he felt. The problem was I knew what was in
his heart, because it was there in mine too. He was the person I
was supposed to have been with. If I had ever woken up and started
living my life in Rosedale, we would have been together. Now, I had
the chance to make that happen again. Trevor didn't want his life
anymore. It was the first time I had thought of things this way.
Trevor wasn't fighting to get back to his body to be with me, but
Stephen was. If ever there was a sign of where my destiny might
lie, it was in that fight for life, the fight to come back to
me.

***

Becoming

I stared at the moon that looked deceivingly
full, knowing in fact that it had one more day to complete that
cycle. Tonight, I would become a Voodoo Priestess under the light
of the almost full moon. The moon cycle that offered the promise of
light in dark times. All we had in magic was the promise of what
was to come, which is why we chose the almost full moon to conduct
this special ceremony. The promise of what was to come was the
thing that kept us going, kept us living, and moving forward. Hope
was a potent magic all its own.

My Auntie Perrine was glowing in the
moonlight. She looked absolutely magnificent, standing before us,
absorbing and radiating the light the moon was reflecting for
us.

"Seraphine Rose LaLande," My aunt's voice
seemed so far away and yet it was magnified on the stagnant, humid,
summer air that clung to all of us like a second skin. "You are
here tonight before the promise of a full moon, before friends, and
family to receive the blessings of the Loa." Her voice deepened as
I listened and I knew the exact moment when she had been inhabited
by the Loa. Her beautiful hair, so much like my own, blew back in a
non-existent wind. She was radiating energy, beauty, and the spirit
of the Loa. "We bestow upon you," she started as she placed the
blood of the sacrifice upon my forehead, "the life force to carry
you well on your journey." "We bestow upon you the wisdom," again
the blood was touched to my face, this time a streak of it placed
upon my right cheek, "to see you through the journey that stands
before you." I lifted my chin a bit higher, toward the moon's light
that I could have sworn I felt caressing my face. "We bestow upon
you the courage to see you through this journey, to see the path,
and know that you travel it well." Another streak of the blessed
blood was placed upon me, this time on my left cheek. I stood
still, watching as my Auntie Perrine, full and shining with the
possession of the Lao, continued on with the ceremony. "We bestow
upon you the love that will guide your heart into doing what is
right." This time the blood was placed upon my lips as my Auntie
Perrine threw her head back and began chanting in a language I
shouldn't have been able to understand, but I knew in my heart what
it meant. She was speaking of all the things I had been, all the
things that had brought me to this point, and all the things that
would come until my destiny was fulfilled. As her chant came to an
end, her head drifted back down and she looked me in the eye, the
piercing fierceness there belonging to the Loa washed away before
my eyes and my Auntie Perrine was back and in control of her body
and the ceremony. "We also bestow upon you the grace and protection
of our ancestors, of our family, and of the Loa themselves." She
dabbed a spot of the sacrificial blood upon each of my eyelids
before laying a kiss there on each one. "You have proven yourself
in trials and proven yourself in life. Seraphine Rose LaLande,
welcome to your new life. You are no longer the girl who questioned
everything, now you are the Priestess who shall have the
answers."

With that last sentiment the candles that had
been burning throughout the ceremony extinguished themselves. I was
filled, momentarily, with the Loa as they passed their
congratulations and blessings on to me. I had never channeled the
Loa before so the tingling sensation they left behind was something
new and exciting. I shivered as the last of the spirit gods left my
body, taking that warmth with them. I looked around, smiling at my
Auntie Perrine, and at the two spirit boys who had come to witness
my ascension to Voodoo Priestess.

After the ceremony, I sat in the grass on my
Auntie Perrine's back yard, staring up at the moon that had been
the lighting for my ceremony. I can't say that I felt any
different, other than a little residual tingling from the hello the
Loa greeted me with during the ceremony. I was drinking from my
bottle of water when Stephen came and sat beside me.

"So, do you feel any different
now?"

"Funny you should ask, because I was just
thinking that I don't really. I mean, I can still feel the tingle
the gods left behind as they coursed through me during the
ceremony, but other than that, I feel like the same Seraphine I've
always been."

"You don't seem like the same Seraphine to
me." I looked over at Stephen, mesmerized by him the way I always
am. He smiled and brushed the hair back from his face. "When I
first saw you in class, you were this quiet girl who I could never
have imagined being a voodoo priestess. I mean, I thought you were
just a bookworm or something. I didn't really know what to think."
He looked away for a moment, staring up at the same moon, so full
of promise for what tomorrow would bring. "Then I met you as the
voodoo practitioner that raised my best friend from the grave. And
man, that was intense. I remember thinking what kind of a powerful
person must she be to do something like that?" I started to
protest, but Stephen just shushed me. "No, Seraphine. I mean it and
you were powerful, beyond what I ever could have imagined. I felt
this pull towards you after that. I don't think I can do the
explanation justice, but I just knew that I couldn't walk away from
you." He smiled again, looking back at me. I wondered in that
moment what he saw, because I was sitting in the middle of the
grass, in a white dress, with blood marking my face, and my hair
frizzed out worse than usual on top while the bottom layers were
damply clinging to my neck and face thanks to the hot, humid air.
He smiled at me, and looked for all the world like he wanted to
kiss me in that moment. Maybe it was just what I wanted, but I
hoped he felt the same. "Seraphine, I know you're worried about
what will happen tomorrow. And no matter what happens, I want you
to know that the very best part of my life has been the after life
I've gotten to spend with you." His hair fell into his eyes again
and I reached up to push it back out of the way. not thinking.
"Maybe one day soon, you will be able to actually do that," he said
as he pushed it back himself. "I have complete faith in you,
Seraphine."

"That's what scares me more than anything." I
dropped my hand down to my lap and looked back up at the moon.
"

"Seraphine," Stephen started, before I cut him
off.

"Stephen, I... "

"Seraphine, your phone keeps ringing non-stop.
I couldn't bring it to you, but I think you should check on it.
It's Tina." Trevor had appeared out of nowhere. He had gone to the
house when the ceremony was over because I had asked to be left
alone for a few minutes. He did not look happy to see Stephen out
here with me.

"I'll go get it," I said, getting up from the
grass. I looked back at Stephen one last time and saw the
disappointment there. He was none to happy about the interruption.
I was torn, because on the one hand, I didn't want to say out loud
what I had been about to for fear that it would cause everything to
go haywire tomorrow. On the other hand, I wanted to tell Stephen
exactly how I felt, just in case I didn't get another
chance.

I walked back to the house with a pissed off
looking Trevor and a sullen Stephen. I didn't know which was worse,
but both were getting under my skin. I grabbed up the cell phone as
soon as I got to it. The moment the phone was in my hands it was
ringing, so I picked it up without even thinking.

"What is the problem now, Tina?" I said into
the phone without even looking at it.

"Well, I would say it has something to do with
the corpse in the hospital." It was Vampire Dave.

"Corpse?" I asked without thinking about my
audience.

"NO!" Stephen cried out.

"That's right. I thought, for all the trouble
I have gone through, you should know a small taste of it. I killed
the boy, what's his name again?" Seraphine could hear papers being
rustled on the other end of the phone, "Ahhh, yes, Trevor. Mr.
Daniels no longer has a body to go back to or to give up for his
little ghost friend."

Trevor was staring at me in awe, while Stephen
had collapsed to the floor utterly defeated.

"Get me that cure, or the witch will be
joining your cast of ghostly friends. I know you're not that fond
of the witch, so my voodoo queen, let it be known that I will not
stop there. I will not stop until every person you ever cared about
has joined your little death squad that follows you around." I
wasn't sure I could continue to stand on my own. Thoughts of my
family, dead, were flashing through my mind. "You have exactly one
week, and then I come to collect." The line went dead and I just
stood there staring at my phone while Trevor paced back and forth
and Stephen was a crumpled heap on the floor.

"I don't feel any different. I think I would
know if my body had died. I still feel sort of tied to the world of
the living." Trevor was pacing back and forth as he talked. "I
don't think he really did it."

"Seraphine! Seraphine, come here, quickly." It
was Auntie Perrine yelling from the other room.

We all ran into the parlor and saw the
television. There was a report about a gruesome murder in a
Baltimore hospital. Someone had killed a boy who had been in a
coma. The name of the victim had yet to be released.

"It can't be, I'm telling you I don't feel any
different." Trevor was saying.

I realized my cell was ringing again. I
answered it, thinking that it would be Vampire Dave, gloating
again. I was wrong. "Seraphine, don't panic." It was Tina. "I took
care of everything. He didn't get the right boy. It wasn't Trevor."
I was hearing the words as if I were in a tunnel. The words were
there, but nothing was coming in clear.

"What?"

"Seraphine, can you hear me?"

"Yeah," I said absently.

"It wasn't Trevor!" Tina was nearly yelling
into the phone now. "I moved him. I switched him with a boy they
were getting ready to pull the plug on. I figured he was going to
be dead anyway, so it wouldn't matter." There was quiet on the
phone, as I tried to get the information to sink in. "It wasn't
Trevor," she repeated.

"It wasn't Trevor." I said out loud. Trevor
looked over at me and Stephen looked up, waiting to hear
more.