Cursed to live....AGAIN

Royce

Royce

6 months later

Walking down Bourbon street and seeing the celebrations was bittersweet. The home hadmbeen in our family for generations, but then again, so had the curse. I owed my life to my friend. I didn't always believe that she could do the things that she told us she could, but she proved me wrong when she expelled Raynelle from me and set our family free forever.

I was headed to meet Twyla and my fiancee so that we could have some fun together. It was Mardi Gras but it was also the celebration of selling the house and finding another that I absolutely loved. It kept me in the loop as far as city life but was far enough away for quiet. It was somewhere that we had decided we could see raising children after the wedding next year.

Right now, that was forefront in my mind, preparing to become a wife. My best friend and I thought it best to keep everything that happened to ourselves, he would never believe it anyway.

We lied and told him that I turned around and knocked right into the mirror after a few too many glasses of wine. He was worried but happy that I was okay. It was a lot easier than telling him that I was possessed by a ghost who tried to kill my body so that we would both be off to goodness knows where. To be honest, I did wonder where she had gone to that night.

Neither of us had seen her or felt her presence. Once she was able to leave the house she was free to roam the same way the other spirits of New Orleans did. It was just a little unsettling not knowing exactly where she had gone. As I crossed the street in between the second line, smiling and dancing along with them as I went, just as I stepped up on the curb, a beautiful young woman with an umbrella and a neck full of beads bumped into me.

"I'm sorry, Royce. I didn't see you there." She apologized to me by name.

"Excuse me, do I know you from somewhere?" I asked her.

"Don't tell me you don't recognize me, that would break my heart. Or the heart of this young lady whose body I decided to borrow for the festivities."

I stood there, stone cold. I was speaking to Raynelle. She had not just drifted off, she had found someone else to inhabit.

"But...how?" I could barely get out.

She put her arm around my shoulder as if we were the best of friends and began to walk with me, pushing me was more like it as my feet felt like lead.

"It turns out that your friend undid the curse that kept us locked in the house. She freed me to do to anyone I chose what it is that we were only ever able to do to each other. Isn't that a hoot? I have had so many bodies and I plan to have many many more. I mean, where else was I to go. I must say, I am making up for everything that wretched witch took from us and it is more fun than you know. I think I could do this forever. As a matter of fact, I think I will.

"Please, leave these innocent people alone." I begged of her as we rounded the corner and stood in front of the plate glass window of the restaurant that I was meeting them at.

"Innocent? HA! You would be surprised at what all is in the minds and hearts of these people. But to be honest, even if they were absolute saints, I would still never give this up. I thought that we were cursed, and we were, to that house. Now that we are free, we can go wherever we want and be whoever we want to be. It's glorious." She sang as she started to two step and shake her umbrella.

"Why do you continue to say we? Who are you talking about?" I needed to know.

"Oh, don't be naïve. Did you think that you would be saved because of some herbs and a very nice chant? Tell her I said so too, it was beautiful. It released me from you but left me open to take on everyone else. When it's your time and your spirit leaves your body, you are still destined to stay in this world, just not confined to that home. You will be the same as me and your eldest daughter and hers after her. So, enjoy your life now because you get to live it. But when your time comes, this is your fate." She continued to tell me as she skipped around as if she couldn't help herself.

"I don't believe you.." I whispered.

"Well now family, that is your choice. But the truth is the truth." She said sternly as she stopped dancing and looked me directly in my face. Her eyes going from Hazel to the red that I still saw in my nightmares at times. This let me know that she was not just attempting to scare me, she was warning me. It seemed that we would never get beyond this, it was destined to consume us all in one way or another. Perhaps there was a way that we could overcome this, but it may not be in my lifetime.

Look how long it took to break the barrier down. I didn't know whether to run and hide or cry or all of the above. I knew that none of it would help. Once she realized that she had gotten through to me, her eyes turned back to the color of the poor girl that she was possessing now and she smiled even wider.

"Listen, we really shouldn't be enemies. I saw your new home and it is lovely. I think we should have lunch, you know, stay in touch. We are family after all. Yes, I think it's what great-grandmother Rachel would have wanted, to keep her family together. Especially since she was the one who brought this curse down on us. Yes, tea from time to time will do. I can't promise you who I'll be when I come to see you, but I promise I will come to be there when you are on death's door to usher you over. That way, we can roam the city taking over bodies as we go and I will no longer have to be alone."

Standing there, I didn't know what to say. She meant every word of it and I could feel that radiating off of her. I was speechless. Finally, Twyla came out to check on us and she knew what was going on without me having to tell her.

"Well, that's my exit. You two have a great time and don't forget to send me an invite to the wedding." She yelled over her shoulder as she danced away quickly and was lost in the crowd.

"What did she say?" my best friend asked.

"Only that I am still cursed."

"That's impossible. She's free and you are alive and well, so how could you be cursed."

"No, I'm not cursed to be unwell or die before my time. That would be too easy. What I am is cursed for my soul to never know peace. I am cursed to live....again, as are we all..."

The End......