Voodoo Queens of New Orleans - Vol. II | In Progress

Chapter One: They'll Hear It

**

In this dark, morbid place, I was lost, and I did not think I would be found.

The first thing I did when I awoke was made sure I had all of my limbs; my legs, my arms. Nothing was taken from me. At least superficially. The gag in my mouth muffled the sounds I made—sounds of agony and sounds of alarm, if there was anyone out there that could hear me.

Calm down, Alisande. What do you remember?

I remember the car accident. I was badly injured in the wreck. I remember seeing vampires stalk towards my destroyed vehicle for me, dragging me out of the wreckage. Sylvia Lange, the Council's Head Mistress of Sorcery, was there. And Sajida. Sajida was there, too. The story pieced itself in my head, and I began to become angry on top of scared and confused:

Sajida had betrayed me; my aunt had betrayed me.

Sajida had her own motives. They were truly unknown to me. One could say that Sajida was receiving some type of reward for my capture—more authoritative influence, more power (magically), a seat at the table once the Council finally wiped all of us out. Maybe Sajida had a different set of plans as opposed to working with the Council; she would slaughter all of them when they were least expecting it and own the table instead of just a seat at it. Or perhaps my kidnapping was an outlet for her anger towards my mother. Revenge for the history between them, much of this history still unknown to me.

None of these theories mattered at the time, though. The only thing I could think about was survival.

Suddenly, dim light began to pour into the room. I saw a female silhouette standing in the doorway. She had a wooden bowl in her hand; it was Kira, one of Sajida's co-workers. I immediately recognized her.

She looked behind her hastily before hurrying into the room. She took the gag out of my mouth, keeping it close by as it would have to be put back in my mouth again.

"Here." She held the bowl of water up to my mouth. "Drink."

I did not drink. I didn't want to if the offering was from Kira. In my eyes, blinded by betrayal, I saw her as a liar. A deceiver. She knew what Sajida was doing here all along. The subtle hint in her eyes whenever she would look at me was the only "hint" I ever received from her at all. When I asked her about Russell Van Doren, she lied. When I questioned her about the red room in the Beaumont mansion, she lied.

So, because of this, I would not drink.

"Please," she begged in a hushed tone, pushing the bowl closer to my lips. "Please drink."

"You knew," I groaned out, my voice rasp. "You knew what Sajida was doing."

"I couldn't say nothing, Lisa," Kira said, setting the bowl down on the ground in frustration. "She kill me if I told you anything."

"So...now you try and give me water...because you feel guilty?"

Kira didn't reply. In the invading darkness, I could see her features aided by the light shining in from where she came—the tremble of her lips, the crease in her brow, the sweat staining her clothes and staining the white bandana on her head. Her eyes—that clouded ivory color—stared down at me with a sort of anxiousness to them, unsettled about whatever was going to happen next. I knew what these eyes meant now; she belonged to Sajida, like the rest of the girls I found down in the docks with those same exact eyes. Everyone in the Bayou of the Shunned had eyes like Kira's. And everyone in that Bayou never left. They couldn't leave.

"I'm trying to help you," Kira finally said to me, looking over her shoulder at the slightest noise in the hall.

"If you wanted...to help me...you would have been honest with me when I first asked you...w-when I first asked you..."