Whispers of the Crescent: A New Orleans Possession

Part 3

I took a sip of my coffee and set it back down on the table then moved my finger up to my eye wiping away a tear as I looked out the window beside me. It was seven in the morning, the streets of downtown New Orleans seemed to be almost empty. I got off my chair and walked towards the door and exited the Coffee shop.

A week had passed since I left the hospital, I spent every night laying in bed crying for hours until I passed out. It seemed harder to get out of bed every morning, to face the day ahead of me. I looked down at the cup of coffee in my hand as I continued down the street

I arrived at the flower shop, opened the door and entered. The store wasn't like any other flower store I had seen before. Pots filed with plants filled shelves on the wall, colourful flowers remained in buckets and pots with water. I walked past the plants and stopped at a desk at the back of the store, behind the cash register stood a woman, she appeared to be around my age. She looked up at me and smiled "Hi there, how can I help you?". Before I was able to reply I heard a crash coming from the other side of the store, I walked over with the woman and saw that a pot had fallen off one of the shelves and shattered all over the floor.
The woman just looked down at the floor in confusion then looked back at me, trying to crack a smile. "Must have just slipped off. Anyways, did you need help with anything?". I looked down at the pot on the ground and looked back up to greet the woman's smile.
"Yes, actually. It's just about a resume that was submitted and I just came to see if-"

The woman cut me off from saying more "Say no more, I know who you are!". The woman began walking back to the end of the store again and beaconed me to follow her "My boss isn't here right now, but I remember the resume, we hardly ever get any here. I'll give the manager a call for you"

"Wait!" I raised my voice as I said this and looked at her in concern. "The resume was from my sister but I came here to see if I could take the job instead. I just really need the money now and my sister won't..." I bit my lip and felt a tear go down my cheek. "My sister died not too long ago, we were in a car accident."
"I'm so terribly sorry for you" the woman said this as she looked at me, I could see she wanted to cry but she didn't', her expression did change from the happy woman I saw as I walked in the store to very upset. The woman seemed broken, like she had experienced something like I have or worst before, I'm unsure of how to describe it but I wanted to know more about her and the kinds of things she has seen and been through.

"My name is Roseanne by the way" She attempted to crack a faint smile towards me as she said this.
"Nadine, my name is Nadine." I took a deep breath after I said this and also tried to smile, to try and break the heaviness in the air.

"Well, Nadine. It's going to be great working with you."
I shot her a look of surprise "you mean I have the job?"
Roseanne laughed for a moment, the once happy woman I saw as I walked in appeared to be back. "I'll let Billy, the manager know but I'll persuade him that you're the one for the job."

I smiled, stepped towards Roseanne and hugged her "Thank you".

"You're welcome, darling. Now I'll give you a call when you need to start working and..."
Roseanne paused and walked back over to the back desk. I saw her write something down on a piece of paper, then she walked over to me and handed it to me. "That's my cell number, now you call me if you ever need anything okay. I know what it's like to lose someone very close."

I nodded to her and thanked her, then left the store.
I moved my hand to my forehead, wiping the sweat off. It always seems to be very humid in New Orleans. I continued to walk down the sidewalk and stopped in front of a payphone booth. . 'Just my luck, some of these things are actually still around' I thought too myself. I needed to buy a new cellphone, but thankfully my house still has a classic landline phone. I punched in the number for the taxi service then noticed there was no noise coming from the phone. I tried putting in the number again, but once again there was nothing. "What the hell" I mumbled to myself.
I started to type in the number for a third time when suddenly the booth door behind me shut. I turned around and attempted to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. 'How the hell does a door just shut and lock by itself?'. I started to pound on the door, looking through the glass booth to see if anyone was around, but I couldn't see anyone. "Help! Open the door!" I yelled this as I continued to pound on the door.

I started to panic and look around the booth, looking through the glass walls to see once again if anyone was near by. I froze as I saw a man watching me across the street. The man appeared to be fairly older than I was, he was wearing a black hat and suit. "Sir, Help me!" I screamed at him but he didn't move, he just continued to stand there and look at me.

Just then the booth began to shake. The walls around me began to shift and turn, it was as if there was an earthquake. I began to scream again and the glass started to shatter around me, I moved my hands above my head to try and protect myself from the shards of glass falling down around me.

Holding my hands over my face, i lifted my leg and kicked at the door again. This time the door opened and without a second thought I lunged my body out of the door.

I began to run down the sidewalk, 'how is nobody around!?' then I remembered how early it still must have been. I looked back across the street, too see if the man was still there but he was gone.

I stopped running after a few blocks, then began to pick some of the glass shards out of my arm. Blood ran down from the wound, i needed to find a medical clinic. I turned around a corner and walked onto what seemed to be more of a main street.

There were people around me now, I tried to hide the cuts on my arm and avoid the concerned stares I got from people walking by. I was still trying to process what had all even happened, how what happened was possible and why it happened to begin with. I looked down at the ground and shook my head in disbelief.
At the corner of my eye, I saw the same man I saw by the phone booth just minutes before. He was standing beside a lamp post and again he was looking directly at me. He seemed to have an amused expression on his face, as if he was the reason for the phone booth incident.

I gasped as I saw him and turned around, I started running down the sidewalk. I didn't know where I was going, I just needed to get away.
Still running I turned my head around, to see if the man was still there.
I screamed and fell backwards, I had run right into someone.
I looked up and saw Dan looking down at me...