Whispers of the Crescent: A New Orleans Possession

Prologue

"Where are we?" I asked, gazing out the window as the darkness flew by, shapes of trees and traffic signs barely registering in my mind before disappearing.

"I'm pretty sure we're..." Lisa trailed off as we approached an intersection. She started slowing down, looking around with bewilderment as if the outside world would give her some sort of answer.

She slowed down further at the intersection, rolling through and checking the sign post before pulling up ahead and pulling off onto the side of the road and putting the car into park.

"That road name didn't look familiar," Lisa frowned. "Can you check the glove compartment for the map?" I complied but my search proved futile.

"I can't find it." I tried searching around me, on the ground, in between the seats; my sister starting to search around her seat. After a few minutes of searching and still coming up with no map Lisa decided we should continue on and hope our course would lead us to civilization. There weren't even lights in the distance to guide our way as we continued our way down the road.

Our first day in New Orleans and we were already lost. Even though we were currently in a slight predicament, I smiled inwardly at the amazing times we were going to have here. Loosing our parents all those years ago had brought my sister and I so much closer together.

We had always dreamed of moving to New Orleans and now our dreams were a reality. Even though our boxes weren't unpacked yet and we had yet to spend a full day in our small town, it already felt promising. My sister had even been hired at a flower shop near by the house we were renting. Our parents had left us with a sizable amount of money and selling our house back home had added enough onto that amount to keep us comfortable for quite a while.

"Shit!" Lisa swerved and my head smacked against the window, leaving me slightly dazed.

"What the hell!?" I grumbled, rubbing at my sore head.

"There was something on the road!" my sister defended. "It came out of nowhere," Lisa mumbled, probably feeling a little guilty. "Are you ok? Is your head..."

"I'm fine," I replied, cutting her off. I didn't mean to snap but I made no move to apologize to Lisa for my behavior. She just frowned and then turned her head to look back at the road. That's when I felt a sudden uneasiness wash over me. The pounding in my head intensified and my chest felt like it was tightening. I took a deep breath when a sharp pain in my side caused me to cry out.

"Babe? Are you ok?" My sister's frightened voice seemed distant as I tried to focus on anything but the unexplainable pain that was spreading through my body.

The nausea intensified and I felt like I was going to hurl. I turned to look at Lisa to tell her to stop the car when I saw a man. He was extremely pale and although the car was moving he stayed a steady and constant image in the driver's side window.

"Lisa, there..." I pointed to the ghostly figure just inches away from her and she turned her head to look out her window.

"What are you pointing at?" Lisa asked, turning back to look at me, she had started putting her foot on the break. How had she not seen him? I opened my mouth to explain to her what I had seen when our car slammed into the air in front of us. It was as if the air had become a solid, brick wall. I tried to process things as the car started spinning wildly out of control.

The world spun by so fast that everything blurred together. I had no idea which way was up and my sister's form was blurring with the rest of my surroundings. I could hear screams but I had no idea if the cries were coming from me or from my sister.

The last thing I remember was the impact. The force was so strong that I felt as if my body was getting pulled in opposite directions. The jarring pain tore through my body and then my head crashed into the back of my chair, blackness exploding behind my eyelids as the world was swept out from under me and a dark force pulled me down.