It's been twenty years since I was in New Orleans in time for Mardi Gras. When Yukio, my 'bodyguard' learned about the festival, she all but begged me to take her. I figured what the hell, why not indulge her. With the shit we've been through lately, we both deserved a break.

"So this is New Orleans?" Yukio asks, staring out of the airplane window.

"No, this is the airport," Logan replies dryly. "You'll see the city once we get out of here."

"Ha ha. Very funny. So when does the festival start?"

Logan steps out of the plane into the warm New Orleans air. It wasn't even eight in the morning and it was already in the upper 50s. Yukio follows a couple seconds later.

"Tomorrow. Today we'll just explore the city a bit. Take in the sights, that kind of stuff." Logan states.

"Sounds like fun. Have you heard of the House of the Rising Sun." inquires Yukio

"Yea. It's an old house that is supposedly haunted in the French Quarter. Not really a good part of town for tourists. Lots of crime. Why?" Logan answers, looking back at Yukio.

"It sounds like an interesting place to check out, that's all. What, is the 'Wolverine' scared of a few ghosts?"

"Oh shut up. Fine. We'll go, but we'll do later."

"Fine by me. Haunted houses are more fun in the dark anyways."

After a whirlwind tour of New Orleans, Yukio and I ended up at the entrance of the French Quarter. During our tour, we asked several people about the "House of the Rising Sun." Everyone told a different story but there were several similarities. A cheating husband, a woman scorned, a murder/suicide and the ghosts. Supposedly, the husband cheated. His wife found out, got pissed, grabbed his shotgun from the gun safe and killed him and then shot herself. Now both of them haunt the house. The house got it's name from the fact that if you went in after dark, you were locked in there. If you could survive until the next morning, you were mysteriously released. Of course no one who has entered has come back out. But that didn't mean it was haunted. After the most recent hurricane, the crime rate in that part of town skyrocketed. Neither of us believed in ghosts, so we weren't excepting anything exciting.

Logan parks the rental car on the street in front of a dark, foreboding house.

"Is this it?" Yukio asks.

"This is the address they said," Logan replies. "It certainly looks the part."

"Well, you ready?" Yukio queries.

"Yea, let's go. The sooner we can get out of here, the better. This place doesn't feel right." Logan responds

As we walked in, it was obvious no one had lived here in a long time. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust. You could still feel the tension in the house. The door closed with a loud crack. Yukio ran over and rattled. Locked. Looking around, I didn't see anything that looked like a threat. I popped my claws, just to be safe.

"Damn it, it's locked." Yukio says angrily. She looks at Logan, and notices the claws, "something wrong?"

"Nothing yet," Logan reassures her, "just being prepared. Let's find a window or something to crawl out of, ok?"

We started walking through the rundown house. The weird thing was there were a ton of windows on the outside but none on the inside. It was like they were just painted on. There were pictures to make you think there were windows, but no real windows. Several hours later, we arrived back at the entrance foyer that we started from.

"So no windows, no openings, no other doors but this one. Do you think you can open it with your claws?" Yukio requests.

"Shouldn't be a problem. It will take a few minutes though." Logan states. He starts working on the door.

"D-Did you see that?" stammers Yukio a few minutes later.

Logan quickly turns around and scans the room. "I don't see anything," he says.

"Must have been nothing. For a moment, I thought I saw a bloodied woman holding a shotgun. Any luck with the door?"

"Almost done. Just couple more seco..."

"Logan, look out!"

Logan turns around just in time to see a bloodied woman lifting a 12 gauge shotgun. He quickly rolls away to dodge a blast to the chest. Snikt! He aims for the neck, trying to end it quickly, but he is surprised when his attack goes right through her.

"Yukio!" Logan yells, "Distract her so I can get the door open."

"How am I supposed to that?" Yukio responds sarcastically.

"I don't know. Just think of something, or we're not getting out of here alive." Logan snaps back.

"Okay, okay. No need to get angry." Yukio quips.

After making sure that the woman was distracted, Logan turns back to the door and gets back to work.

"Damn piece of shit door," Logan curses.

"What's wrong?" Yukio asks.

"The door won't budge." Logan replies.

"That's not good. Could you help with miss shotgun over here?"

Just as Logan moves to assist Yukio, the woman mysteriously disappears and the door opens.

Outside the sun was rising and there was a man with a shotgun wound on his chest standing on the porch. He nods at Logan before disappearing.

"Well, that was different," Yukio states.

"Definitely not something I want to do again," Logan replies.

They both walk towards the rental car.

"Thankfully the rental wasn't taken. How about we get some sleep and go enjoy the festival later?" Logan asks.

"I'm all for that and a shower." Yukio slyly replies.

Epilogue

Hours after Logan and Yukio leave the house, a mysterious man with a dome obscuring his face steps out the shadows surrounding the house.

"That was interesting," the man states, "most interesting." He then walks away.