Lens 7

Through a Lens Darkly

Chapter 7

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The pickup truck puttered into the next town, a small off shoot from the main road, it seemed, that didn't try to encourage an inflow of tourism. A town that belonged strictly to the people that lived there with its well used buildings and streets, it was just off from what would be considered antique and leaning more towards that lived in feel.

The house they were looking for was just at the end of the main strip. It looked pleasant with it's white washed wood and open porch. But it was the large gnarled tree out front with the array of bottles hanging from its bare branches that made it slightly off putting.

"Your hoodoo queen seems not to worry about hiding what she is," Etienne commented. "Do you trust her?"

Alicia leaned over the steering wheel to stare at the house. "Mamma did, and I don't remember her ever being unkind to me."

"And you, cherie? You have not seen her for some time?" Etienne, she noticed he was fading away to almost nothing.

Alicia shook her head, getting out of the car. "Kendra kept her distance after my mother died. Let's just hope she actually liked me back then."

Approaching the house, it wasn't long before some of the town people were watching Alicia curiously; it made her step quicken and she felt as much anxiety with those stares as she had about reaching the door.

But she needn't have worried about reaching the door, because Kendra was waiting for them on the porch, Alicia didn't remember seeing the woman leave the house. But there she was, even in her twilight years Kendra cut a proud figure in her white head wrap covering once midnight hair that now looked ashen against the amber beads and trinkets round her neck. Staring down at them with an old looking broom in hand as if she were wielding Gabriel's fiery sword. And she did not look happy.

"Lissy Evans, what ya doing bringing tainted things to my house?" She asked crossly.

Alicia looked at Kendra with surprise, following the priestess' gaze to where Etienne was standing almost invisible. So her mother hadn't been lying all those years.

"We need help, Kendra."

But the priestess was still glaring at Etienne. "Well, ghost?" The old woman asked shrewdly.

Etienne shrugged. "Bonjour, Kendra. Tainted is a bit harsh," he added.

"The truth's always harsh, son." She said plainly before turning into the house. "Well, ya might as well git in here before people start staring holes in ya."

Etienne swept Alicia a bow and then followed her inside. He looked around curiously. "Feels quite like home," he finally said.

"I don't even want to know." Alicia replied, slightly distracted by the interesting mix of a traditional southern home and Kendra's hoodoo beliefs. She couldn't even name half the things that were hanging on the walls, she only gave the kitchen a passing glance, her head reeling from some of the heavy musk and spice smells wafting from it.

They followed Kendra to the living room where she sat without offering a place for her guests, but Alicia remembered her time with the priestess to just sit on her own or be glared at for not having the foresight to do things without being told.

"Ya gonna tell me why there's a chain thick as steel keeping ya two no more then a foot apart?" Kendra asked abruptly, staring at both Etienne and Alicia in kind.

"Allow me to explain," Etienne said, with a slight smile. "I was entombed and when Alicia touched my prison she freed me. Somehow our spirits have become entangled. I wish nothing more than to free her. Can you help me, madame? Can you help her?"

Kendra raised and eyebrow. "Ya think ya paid your penance then?"

Etienne's eyebrow rose. "I do not believe, madame, that is your concern."

Kendra glared. "It is if ya plan on being round Mal's little girl, ya hear me? There's some evil in ya, son. And if ya ain't careful it's gonna eat you up inside. Don't ya dare put her in the middle of it." It was a warning the hoodoo priestess didn't make lightly.

Etienne bowed to her. "You have my word that I will never see little Alicia after the moment we are separated."

Alicia didn't comment on the conversation between the two because, in all honesty, she didn't know how she felt about it all. Kendra looked like she knew something but wasn't telling.

"So can you help us?" Alicia said, trying to steer clear from Etienne's sparkling personality.

Kendra finally focused on the young shape shifter and smiled warmly. "First thing the two of ya gotta do is stop running. It'll be dangerous for the both of ya, but trial by fire, child. The breaking has to take place where the bonding did. Bringing ya both full circle to where ya should of been from the start."

Alicia visibly deflated in her chair. "We have to go back to Charleston."

Kendra nodded.

"Oui, I expected it. But I need to gain strength and power to force the severing of the bonds. And to create the spell to do it I will need to collect ingredients," Etienne explained. "Underground is best for such magics."

"If I let ya use my cellar, ya best respect it sir, unless ya lookin' to get bit." Kendra warned.

"Madame, I respect your power and your wisdom. Although I am not a follower of hoodoo, many in my family are." He paused. "Or were."

"I'd offer ya tea Lissy girl, but where you go, he goes. I'll pack ya some things for the trip in the mean time." Kendra said before she left the two alone.

Alicia felt light and lost as she stood. "Cellar's down this way." She said with a faint smile as she gestured for Etienne to follow her, as if he had a choice.

"I am desolee, cherie, that you are not welcome because of me. I do not pretend to understand it, but I accept it."

Alicia laughed, leading them down the cellar stairs she felt a strange pressure as if they just walked into a bubble. "Believe it or not, she doesn't hate you. God forbid she hates you, you'd be running from this house screaming if she did."

The room smelled of fresh earth, the walls lined with earthen ware jars and drying herbs and plants. But besides a few colored candles and cards bearing the portraits of Christian saints, it was almost barren compared to the decoration of the house above.

"You should rest, cherie while I think." Casually, almost not thinking about it a ghostly finger reached out and hooked to the nearest socket. "Do not worry, I have learned to take only so much at a time."

Etienne wavered from his usual look, as he concentrated, instead fading into a figure she could not quite make out.

Alicia nodded, her mind too full of things to give a real answer. She found a cool spot on the dirt floor near the light, watching him and feeling the change as he took in power over the bond. As she dozed, she wondered what it was going to feel like with only her own emotions and thoughts in her head again.

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