Season 3, Episode 6: Hoodoo
Ever since I found out that witch blood runs in my family, I've been fascinated by magic; I mean, how cool is it to say a spell and have something happen? Then you have the kinds of magic they practice in other parts of the world, like Louisiana. There are people there who practice a kind of magic called hoodoo; people who practice it can use spells and potions to do good things for people…or bad things; I guess it just depends on who's casting the spell. I have to wonder, though; why would someone use hoodoo to do bad things to someone else? Anger? Revenge? Jealousy?
"Hey, I've been working on my Greek. Se epithimisa." Carey winced, holding the phone to his ear; however, he started beaming. "Really? Well, that's good to know. Okay, I'll talk to you later. Antio!"
"Wow, Carey, it's like Christmas for you every time you talk to Callee, isn't it?" Jack looked up from his hand of cards and raised an eyebrow at the older blonde.
"Hey, at least we're not paying for the international calls. I'm sure she can just charm the operator into connecting her for free…at least, if he's male." Fi's remark earned her a glare of daggers from Carey as he set the phone down, taking his seat next to Jack back.
"Yeah, and what about Ryan?" Carey stuck his tongue out at her. Fi wrinkled her nose and put a card down, but she jumped when she felt her ring start to resonate; immediately, she put her hand under the table just as Molly came back from the front of the bus.
"Irene just told me the best news. We've got a two night sold-out booking at Bayou Joe's starting the day after tomorrow!" She had the expression of someone who'd just won the lottery, and everyone else jumped out of their seats; cards went flying everywhere as Jack and Fi almost tackled her.
"Mom, that's the biggest club in New Orleans! How'd that happen?" Fi stepped back.
"Well, you know that club owner from Little Rock? He said that he felt so bad about changing our booking that he talked to a friend of his in New Orleans and got us a booking at the club. This is probably going to be our biggest show ever!" She, along with everyone else, started cheering again, and neither Molly nor Fi noticed that their rings were glowing again as the bus crossed state lines. In another two hours, after everyone settled down, they pulled up in front of Bayou Joe's.
"Well Irene, I don't think Evelyn could've gotten me booked here." Molly patted her manager on the shoulder as everyone stepped off the bus, looking up at the club that bore posters for the gig all over the outside.
"I'll make sure there's a marquee at the next venue you play." Irene nudged the singer and they both laughed, walking into the club. Everyone gasped as they caught sight of how spacious the interior was; a fully stocked bar occupied one wall, and a metal walkway ran around the outside of the room above their heads.
"This is probably the most awesome club I've ever played in." Molly closed her eyes for a minute, imagining how it would look filled with people, but a dark-skinned woman clearing her throat distracted her thoughts.
"Can I help you?" The woman raised an eyebrow, hand straying down to where her cell phone was holstered on her hip.
"Yes, I'm Molly Phillips; I'm playing a concert here." Molly smiled.
"Oh, Ms. Phillips! It is such a pleasure to have you here. I'm DeEtta Lawrence, the owner." The woman walked briskly over to them and shook Molly's hand.
"Actually, the pleasure is mine; I've never played a club this big before!"
"Yes, well, we needed a band to play and Joe called me just in time. You're saving my butt!" The woman laughed heartily. "If you don't mind, I'd like to go over the paperwork with you to make sure everything's in order."
"I think I can help with that. Irene Bell; we spoke on the phone." Irene stepped up and shook hands with DeEtta, walking away with her to a back room. Jack and Carey had wandered off to check out the club more, but Fi put a hand on her mother's shoulder to stop her from walking away to find them.
"What is it, baby?" Molly turned to face her daughter.
"You look like something's been bugging you." Fi crossed her arms.
"What are you talking about? I'm just really excited to be playing this club!"
"No, I'm talking about the kind of thing that was bugging you in New York."
Molly's smile faded. "Baby, there is nothing bugging me. I just…I've been having some problems with a song. Ever since we got here, I've had this burst of inspiration but I can't get it out in words or music." Her shoulders slumped.
"Hey, don't worry about it. You have two days to write your song; you'll get it." Fi put a hand on her mother's shoulder and smiled, making Molly laugh.
"Well, thanks for your concern. I've got to go get some stuff out of the bus." Molly gave a half-smile and walked away, but Fi bit her lip as she stood there, watching her mother leave. She turned to look at her computer as it let out a chime, and she ran over to it as soon as she saw the familiar "Mail" icon. Clicking on it, she gasped and opened the reply window.
"So, what kind of weirdo are you e-mailing now?" Jack asked, breaking her focus and earning him a glare.
"For your information, Captain Dorkus, I'm e-mailing a friend who lives here in New Orleans. She really wanted to meet me and talk about—"
"Weird stuff? As if we need more of that in our family. Carey and I are going to do a homework assignment about the history of food in Louisiana." Jack rolled his eyes.
"I take it that's Jack-speak for 'Ned wants us to do a history assignment so we're going to go eat and say it's homework?'" Fi raised an eyebrow.
"Fine. You can stay here and be weird while Carey and I go do our homework." Her brother walked away, allowing her to do what he'd interrupted.
Sally –
We just got to Bayou Joe's and it is AMAZING! Feel free to come around the club today; I'll be here.
- Fi
She clicked SEND just in time to hear the band fire up, playing She Sells. Fi bobbed her head in time with the music and closed her computer, trying to figure out if she could find a creative way out of her history paper; it came in the form of her ring glowing again. She covered it with her other hand and looked up on stage, trying to squint past the stage lights.
"Worried about your mom?" Carey's voice out of nowhere made her jump. She briefly glared at him and turned her attention back to the stage.
"I guess so. She hasn't really been okay since we left New York." Fi crossed her arms.
"Can you blame her? She was really scared."
"No, I can't, but I still think that there's something else bothering her."
"Aside from her only daughter dangling from the edge of a skyscraper roof?"
"You know what I mean. Something weird."
"Fi, the only weird thing Molly's worried about is you." She scowled at him.
"You're not helping." He laughed as he ambled away, seeing Jack doing the same thing. She sighed and shook her head, pausing when her muscles tensed. Turning around, she saw a dark-skinned girl looking around.
"Can I help you?" The girl stopped.
"Oh, I'm looking for Fi? I'm Sally." She bit her lip, but Fi smiled.
"Actually, you're in luck. I'm Fi." Sally briskly walked forward, beaming, and threw her arms around Fi.
"It's so good to finally meet you! I was really excited when I saw that your mom was playing here." She stepped back.
"Yeah, she was pretty excited too. This is a really big deal for her."
"I guess so. Have you had a chance to look around the city yet?"
"We just got here, so we're still taking care of stuff."
"Well, come by my mom's salon; Hair by Nola. It's about three blocks from here. My mom was so excited when she heard that you were coming that she wanted to give you a big surprise."
"I'm sure I can convince her." Fi laughed. "Would you mind if we brought our friend, Irene?"
"Hey, any friend of yours is a friend of ours. I have to go do some homework, but I hope I'll see you there!" Sally turned on her heel and walked out, leaving Fi to look around for her mother. When she found Molly, the musician thought it was an excellent idea, and she rounded up Irene before whisking everyone away to the salon. They found it with no problem, and a bell rang to signal their entry. A dark-skinned woman came up to them, beaming.
"Sally told me you were coming, but I'd recognize you anywhere, Molly Phillips!" She stepped forward and robustly embraced Molly, who looked taken aback but pleasantly surprised.
"I had no idea I was that famous." Molly chuckled.
"Oh, I recognize you from the posters they've been plastering around town! But where are my manners. I'm Nola."
"It's great to meet you. This is my manager, Irene, and my daughter, Fiona." Nola hugged each of them in turn.
"When Sally told me that she'd been talking to Fiona Phillips, I just had to meet you. Everyone's been so excited for your show! I've never gotten the chance to meet a rockstar, so I'm going to give you the rockstar treatment; manicures, pedicures, facials, the works, and I won't take no for an answer."
A surprised smile lit up everyone else's faces. "I don't think I could say no if I tried!" Molly laughed.
"Where's Sally? I'd love for her to meet my mom." Fi looked around.
"She was just here a minute ago…oh, Miss Lague! Molly Phillips is here!" Nola walked over to a woman sitting in one of the chairs, and Miss Lague let out a "harrumph."
"You make it sound like she's Louis Armstrong come back to life. You cut my hair too short."
Nola glared at the woman. "Your hair is fine. It's not every day a rockstar comes in here. Hush. Well, let's get started!" Before she could seat them in chairs, Miss Lague started squirming and when she looked down to see what the problem was, her eyes shot open and she let out an ear-shattering scream. Jumping out of her chair, she stared running wildly around the salon, frantically trying to brush something off of her. Molly, Fi, and Irene all tensed; they didn't see any tarantulas anywhere. Nola ran to her. "What's wrong!"
"Tarantulas! All over me!" The panicked woman ran out of the shop and everyone followed her until she stopped in front of a house where a dark-skinned woman was watering flowers in a planter on her front porch. "Olivia Grange, this is your work! You've crossed me!" Enraged, she stormed off, but Olivia simply looked at her and went back to watering her flowers. Fi stood there looking at the woman until a tap on her shoulder made her jump.
"Oh my…Sally! You scared me!" She put a hand on her chest to calm her heart.
"Sorry about that. Why was Miss Lague yelling at Miss Grange?" Sally looked over to the woman on the porch.
"I don't know, actually. We were in the salon and she started screaming about tarantulas. She said something about being crossed?" Fi's brow knit and Sally's face fell.
"Oh, no. Miss Grange crossed her?" Sally started to walk away and Fi followed her, but not before casting one last glance at Olivia.
"Crossed? What does that mean?"
"It's another word for cursed. Miss Grange is a hoodoo woman."
"Hoodoo? Like, voodoo?"
Sally shook her head. "No, a lot of people get the two confused. Voodoo is a religion with God and the Devil; everyone thinks that voodoo priests use dolls to curse people, but they don't. Hoodoo is folk magic. You can use it to help people or cross them, depending on what they did."
"What happens when someone gets crossed?"
"You never know. A lot of it has to do with who's doing the crossing; a lot of hoodoo doctors will prey on the fears of the people they're crossing to really get to them."
"Wow. It sounds like hoodoo's really dangerous."
"Yeah, that's why it's pretty bad to have someone like Miss Grange mad at you. So I've got to go home to finish some homework, but you should go back to the salon. My mom was really excited to take care of y'all, and in Louisiana, it's rude to turn down a gift from your hosts." Sally winked.
Fi laughed. "Okay, okay. It's not like we could have turned all of that down anyway."
"Okay, I'll see you later!" Sally walked away and Fi went back from the salon, thinking about the incident with Miss Lague the entire time.
-X-
After a full pampering session and some sightseeing around town, everyone turned in to their rooms at the Inn on Bourbon, a somewhat upscale hotel on Bourbon Street. Molly walked into the room she and Fi were sharing and turned off the light.
"Goodnight, sweetie." She paused to kiss her daughter on the forehead.
"Goodnight, Mom." Fi closed her laptop and slid under the covers and, before too long, both women were fast asleep.
The air in the room began to shift, and so did Fi and Molly; beads of sweat appeared on their brows, and their movements became more frequent as they kicked off their blankets to relieve the growing heat in the room. Both of them began to breathe faster and suddenly, they awoke and shot straight up in bed when they realized that fire had sprung up at the feet of their beds.
"Mom!" Fi scrambled over and got into Molly's bed, and both of them started screaming as the inferno consumed their rooms. In a moment of lucidity in her panic, Fi noticed that both of their rings were glowing with a light tinged with red, but the fire catching the bedposts brought her crashing back into the reality that they were going to burn to death. Their screams became ear-shattering when the comforter caught, and Fi closed her eyes to brace herself for the intense pain of burning alive; her eyes opened, however, when the noise of the blaze stopped and the vision of death she'd been experiencing only seconds before was replaced by a perfectly normal hotel room that was now occupied with everyone else from the bus.
"What's wrong!" Jack's muscles were tense as he looked around the room.
"The room was on fire!" Both Molly and Fi's hearts were beating like jackhammers; the reality that the room was completely untouched by fire hadn't set in yet.
"On fire? I think you were just having a bad dream." Carey shifted to get a better grip on the doorframe.
"Yeah…a bad dream…" Fi trailed off, still trying to figure out what had just gone on.
-X-
Fi's eyes fluttered open and closed as she perused posts on her website in the club while her mom rehearsed, and she shook her head to wake herself up. Whether or not the fire in her room the night before had been a bad dream or not, it had felt very, very real, and she'd been shaken; almost as much as the tree almost killing her back in Hope Springs. She looked up when someone came into the club, and she smiled as best she could when she saw it was Sally.
"Hey, Fi! Whoa, you look…bad. What happened?" The girl took a seat at the table across from her.
"I didn't get much sleep last night. I had…well, I think I had a really, really bad dream."
"What kind of bad dream?"
"This sounds really stupid, but I dreamed that my room was on fire, but…"
"But what?"
"It felt so…real. I…I thought I was going to die."
"Oh, I'm sorry, Fi. I hope you can sleep better tonight."
"It was really weird, though, because my Mom had the exact same dream."
Sally paused. "Really? Well, I'm no hoodoo woman, but I made something for you. Kinda like a souvenir of your stay here." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a wooden disk with an intricate design carved on it.
Fi gasped and took it. "Wow! What is this?"
"It's supposed to be a charm, but I don't know if it'll work. It's supposed to bring you good luck."
"Thanks, Sally! It's really cool!"
"You're welcome. Hey, I have to go to the store with my mom, but do you think we could hang out later?"
"Sure! I'll probably be at my hotel later, so just swing by there."
"Okay! Bye, Fi!" Sally got up and left and when she did, Jack came over.
"Hey, I'm going to go look at some tourist spots. Do you want to come?"
Fi thought for a moment. "Sure. Maybe it'll get my mind off of this whole nightmare business." She got up and left with the boys.
Their first stop was a souvenir store, which had an array of both good and bad New Orleans memorabilia.
"Hey, look! Postcards!" Fi walked over to a rack and started admiring the pictures on them. "Do you think Grandma Kathleen would like this one?" She held up a postcard for Jack to see, but when he walked over, it flew out of her hands and behind a table onto a chair. Sighing, she leaned over the table to get it.
-X-
Molly walked onstage, looking just as worn out as her daughter. It seemed strange to her that she and Fi had had the same dream, but it had felt so…real. She'd been so shaken up by it that she hadn't gotten back to sleep, and now, the last thing she felt like doing was rehearsals for tomorrow's show, but she had to rehearse; she was getting paid quite a bit to perform, and the club manager from Little Rock had stuck his neck out to get her a gig here, so she'd perform whether she wanted to or not. She still hadn't managed to figure out the lyrics to the song she'd been trying to write, even though she'd written a melody for it, and with last night, she had a lot to deal with.
"Is everything okay, Mrs. P?" Carey raised an eyebrow as he picked his guitar up.
"I'm fine, really." She threw him a weak smile and reached for the microphone, but when she took it off of the stand and rolled off of the stage to rest on the floor. "Shoot." Sighing, she knelt down to grab for it.
-X-
When both Molly and Fi leaned forward, their eyes shot open when they realized that they couldn't breathe. They struggled, but it felt like someone was holding their heads underwater. Just when they thought they were going to black out, they were let go and came back up.
-X-
Jack ran over to his sister, holding her up as she struggled to stay on her feet.
"Fi, what's wrong?"
"I…I don't know! It felt like I was underwater!"
"But…you weren't. You were just going to get that postcard."
"Jack, I think someone's crossed me."
"Crossed you? What are you talking about?"
"Cursed me."
"You think someone put a curse on you?"
"Yes! I…I need to go." Fi ran out of the shop and, after letting out a frustrated sigh, Jack followed her. They both ran back to the club, and before she could stop herself, she ran into Carey, who fell to the floor. "Oh my…Carey, I'm so sorry!" She helped him up.
"Where are you off to in such a hurry?"
"I've got to do some research. Something really weird is going on here." Fi snatched her laptop from the table.
"Now that you mention it, something weird happened with your mom."
Fi stopped dead in her tracks. "Wait, what? What happened to my mom?"
"Actually, I'm not sure. It looked like she couldn't breathe, but she wasn't choking…I'm not too sure what happened."
Without another word, Fi ran to the stage where her mom was sitting on the edge, pen poised over a notepad. "Mom! Carey said something happened!"
Molly set the pad down. "Oh, yeah, it was nothing. I think the stress of figuring out this song is getting to me. I think I just had a little panic attack or something."
"Mom, did it feel like you were underwater?"
Molly's eyes went wide before she regained her composure. "Well, yeah, kinda, but it was over before I knew it. Like I said, I think it's stress—"
"It's not stress! I think that someone's crossing us!"
Molly's brow knit. "Crossed? What are you talking about?"
"It's a curse; a hoodoo curse. Someone put a spell on us and it's doing bad things!"
"Baby, a spell? I think—"
"I think I need to put a stop to this before someone gets hurt!" She ran off, leaving Molly extremely confused.
"Wait a second, did she say…voodoo? That's it!" Excitedly, she scribbled down lyrics on the notepad.
-X-
Fi ran down the block after putting her laptop in the bus. She'd realized that she didn't need to do any research; she knew exactly what was going on. Miss Grange was crossing her, and somehow Molly as well, but why? Had she done something wrong? She skidded to a stop in front of Miss Grange's house and paused for a minute before walking up to the front door and knocking. Nobody answered, but when she knocked again, the door creaked open.
"Hello?" When nobody still answered, she bit her lip before walking in. She stopped when she saw a line of red dust just inside the door and, even though her intuition was screaming to get out, she took a few cautious steps forward. A scream tore itself from her throat when Miss Grange stepped in front of her.
"What are you doing here?" The older woman crossed her arms.
"I…I'm sorry for coming into your house like this, but you're crossing me! Why are you doing this?"
"You think I'm crossing you?" Miss Grange sighed. "Come." Furious, Fi followed her and sat down at the kitchen table when Miss Grange gestured. "So, you've been crossed. What has happened to you?"
"What are you talking about? You know what's happening because you're crossing me!"
"Do you know how hoodoo works?"
"Why would that matter? All I care about is that you're hurting my mom and me!"
"It matters. Hoodoo is an odd form of magic; it's psychosomatic. It only works if you believe. I take it that since you think you've been crossed, you believe. Wait…I sense…something about you. You're different than others. I can imagine someone wouldn't need to convince you that hoodoo is real because you already believe."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Someone who practices hoodoo needs to work closely with someone they're trying to cross. To truly affect their victim, they need personal items."
"Personal items? But…" A sense of dread filled Fi. If Miss Grange wasn't crossing her, then someone else who had the opportunity was. "What kind of personal items?"
"To be most effective, they have to come from the person. Fingernails, hair—"
"Hair!" It all made sense. Someone from the salon must have used her hair to cross her! Another thought made her pause. "Could you tell me what this is? My friend gave it to me." She pulled out the carving Sally had made from her and slid it across the table.
Miss Grange picked it up and looked at it. "Whoever gave this to you is no friend. Sometimes, a hoodoo man or woman can use talismans like this one to strengthen their spells."
"Oh, no." The bottom of Fi's stomach dropped out when she came to the realization that it had been Sally crossing her all along, not Miss Grange. "I…I'm so sorry for accusing you. It's someone else."
"Then you'd better stop them before they do something really dangerous."
"I will." Fi got up from the table, but paused. "Hey, what was that red dust by your door?"
"It's brick dust. It keeps away those who wish to harm you."
"Thank you." With that, Fi ran out of the kitchen and back to the street, making her way straight to Hair by Nola. She burst through the door, startling Nola.
"Fiona! It's good to see you again!" She beamed.
"I wish I had time to talk, Nola, but I really need to find Sally. Do you know where she is?"
"Well, yes, I think she's at home doing some homework. We live a down the street on the corner in the red house."
"Thanks, Nola." She smiled at the woman before running out of the shop to where Nola had told her the house was. Without hesitation, she ran up the front steps and opened the door, which, surprisingly, was unlocked. She didn't even know where to begin, but something was telling her to go upstairs, and she did. She was faced with a hallway, and she was drawn to a door at the end. Wouldn't Sally be in her bedroom if she was doing homework? She inhaled sharply when she realized that every time Sally said she was doing "homework," she was probably working a spell to cast, so she probably wasn't in her room. Going to the end of the hallway, she opened the door to find a set of stairs leading up, and when she got to the top, she gasped when she saw Sally sitting at a low table, focused on something. "So, are you casting another spell on me?"
The other girl looked up from whatever she was doing in shock. "Fi! What are you doing here? I was just—"
"Just what? Don't try lying to me! I know you're the one who crossed me and my mom!"
"Your mom? But I only meant it for you; I didn't even take her hair." Sally frowned.
"I don't care who you meant it for! You were casting spells on me! Why!"
"I…I was jealous of you, okay! You see so many things that I could never imagine, and you post all about it on your website…but you know what? I can't have you going and telling Miss Grange that I was the one crossing you…" Glancing at the table, her hand went for a sprig of herbs; looking around frantically, Fi spotted a jar full of red dust sitting on a trunk. In a second that seemed like minutes, she ran for it and made a line that separated her and Sally just as the other girl put the herbs into a smoking pot.
"Oh, so you've figured out some hoodoo. Good for you. That won't stop my spell." Sally smiled triumphantly, but it faded. "Why isn't it working?"
"Probably because you need me to have that talisman you gave me." Fi gave a triumphant smile back.
"Fine, but once I get your hair…oh no! It's in my room!" Sally gave a dismayed look to the line of brick dust she wouldn't be able to cross.
"Sally, why are you jealous of me? Because I get to see ghosts and werewolves? Well, you know what? Not everything I've seen is cool. My brother's been possessed by an evil spirit, and there are more evil spirits that want to kill me because of my gift! There are times that I wish I didn't run into all of this stuff, but I can't help it. You don't want what I have, trust me."
Sally looked at the floor and when she looked back up, tears were streaming down her face. "I'm sorry, Fi. I was so jealous…I didn't think about what I was doing!"
Fi sighed. "Look, Sally, using magic like that is…it's not okay, and I don't think I can ever forgive you doing what you did, but…if you swear that you'll never do magic on me or anyone else again, I won't tell Miss Grange it was you."
"Done. If you let me out of here, I'll give you the hair I collected so I can't cast any more spells on you, and I swear I'll never cross anyone again." They locked eyes and Fi bit her lip.
"Okay. I'll let you out." Fi stepped forward to the line of brick dust and broke it with her foot; Sally hesitantly approached it and stepped over it, letting out a sigh of relief.
"Come with me." Sally led Fi down the attic stairs and into her bedroom, where she picked up a lock of brown hair and handed it to Fi. "Fi…I'm so sorry."
Taking a deep breath, Fi looked at her and turned, walking out of the room and leaving her to cry, alone. The front door slammed and she went back into the attic, crossed the brick dust line again, and began to put her spell supplies back into the trunk.
Sally.
She looked up, but didn't see anyone. "Hello?"
Sally!
As she scanned the attic, her eyes came to rest on a standing mirror that seemed to shimmer. She came up to it and paused.
"Hello, Sally." Her reflection speaking startled her.
"Who are you?"
"Who I am isn't important. I'm here to tell you that Fi was lying to you."
"Lying to me? What do you mean? She told me that—"
"Of course she told you that her family was being attacked by evil spirits. That was a lie so you wouldn't want her gift anymore. She's seen amazing things; she's even been able to talk to her dead father." Her reflection crossed its arms.
"She's…talked to her dead father?"
"Yes. How fair is it that she gets to talk to her father and you never get to speak to yours again? If you had her gift, you could."
"But how could I get her gift?"
"We can give you the power." Mirror Sally put its hand up and, after a few moments of deliberation, Sally touched the mirror with her palm. The mirror shook violently and Mirror Sally disappeared as Sally's eyes glowed red.
-X-
For Fi, the night and next day passed without incident and before anyone knew it, it was time for Molly's big show. Fi sat backstage while her mother got ready, rereading the lyrics of the song she'd finally managed to write, even though she had them down pat. Fi had managed to reassure her that they wouldn't be having any more nightmares or stress attacks, but she was still worried that something might happen. She did trust Sally, but her intuition was telling her that she wasn't out of danger just yet.
"Good luck, Mom." Fi smiled at Molly.
"Thanks, baby. I'm so nervous!" Molly bit her lip, a nervous smile on her face.
"Don't worry, mom. You've killed every gig you've ever played. How's this one any different?" Jack put a hand on her shoulder, relaxing her smile.
"Thanks, kiddo. I gotta go." With a deep breath, Molly walked through the curtains to cheers and applause. It was a little overwhelming to play a show this big, but she closed her eyes, took another breath, and stepped up to the microphone. "Thanks for coming out, Bayou Joe's! Let's get this started!" With that, the band launched into In the Darkness, making the crowd go wild.
Fi, watching through the curtains, smiled as her mom settled into her stage presence and turned around, going for her laptop. She'd been researching hoodoo all day; it seemed paranoid now that the immediate threat was gone, but she'd gone to a hardware store and bought some brick dust. It was amazing how something so simple could provide such powerful protection magic, but she figured that it might come in handy sometime.
When In the Darkness finished the band played a few more of Molly's classic songs; when they were finished, Fi's ears perked up (figuratively, of course; she wasn't a dog…again) when she heard her mom say that she was going to do a new song. She was impressed when she heard a smooth blues-type sound coming from the stage, but her ring glowing again distracted her; dread filled her when she noticed that it was the same reddish glow she'd seen when her room had "caught fire." Suddenly, she was jerked away from her laptop by an unseen force; she managed to grab her laptop bag with the jar of brick dust before her feet carried her off. She grunted as she tried to fight, but whatever had control of her body was too strong; before she knew it, she was climbing a staircase and ladder to the roof of the club. When she saw Sally standing there, it felt like a punch in the stomach; with a gesture, the girl had her walking forward.
"Sally! What are you doing!" She staggered to a stop.
-X-
The band launched into the new song and Molly took the microphone.
Well I can't sleep at night
and my days are like a dream
I feel you holding me tight
As soon as she sang those words, her body tensed up and she began walking toward the edge of the stage, as if something else was controlling her. What was going on! She noticed that her ring was glowing, and this wasn't the first time this had happened since they'd gotten to New Orleans…or ever, really. Usually, the light was comforting, but this time, the glow seemed…evil. She had to keep singing.
I try to run but I, I can't fight…
-X-
"You lied to me, Fiona." Sally crossed her arms, still keeping Fi in the thrall of her magic.
"I lied to you! How! Nothing I told you was a lie!" Fi kept trying to fight the magic.
"You never told me you got to speak to your father!"
Fi fought back immense sadness. "I've only talked to him once after he saved me from the evil spirits! He died before I was born because they took him from me!" She spit the last few words of the sentence at Sally like barbs.
"No matter. I'm going to get your gift so I can talk to my father."
"What! How are you going to do that!"
"By killing you." A wicked grin dominated Sally's face as she raised a hand that glowed with red energy. Fi screamed as she was pulled off of her feet and yanked backwards; she managed to grab onto an air duct, but when she looked back, a giant vortex was threatening to swallow her into oblivion.
-X-
The song went on, but Molly almost fell to her knees when Bayou Joe's vanished and was replaced by an endless sky; she was standing on a cliff over an abyss that was calling to her, drawing her in. Somehow, though, she managed to keep singing.
Tell me,
What you do, what you do
with your voodoo
What you do
with a spell on me?
What you do, what you do
with your voodoo
What you doing to me?
-X-
"Sally! No!" Fi struggled to keep her grip on the metal duct, but she was losing the battle.
"Your gift will be mine, Fiona." Sally gestured again, making Fi lose her grip a little more.
"Help!" Fi's scream rang across the rooftop.
-X-
Jack was looking through the curtains, watching his mom perform, and he frowned when he saw that she was acting strangely. Her movements seemed jerkier, less graceful than she usually was onstage. Suddenly, he gasped when he was overwhelmed by…something; something that told him his sister was in trouble. He looked around and saw that she wasn't where he'd seen her when their mom had started playing, and he started to panic; however, his instincts told her that she was…on the roof. He didn't know how he knew that, but he ran to the stairs he'd seen earlier; when he got to the top, he spotted a ladder against a wall that led to a trapdoor and, without hesitation, climbed it.
He froze when he saw Fi; she was holding onto something, and it looked like she was being pulled upward by something unseen. He also saw the girl he'd seen his sister hanging around with, and everything inside him screamed for him to do something. Gritting his teeth, he ran forward on pure instinct and tackled the girl.
Fi let out an "oof" when she hit the ground, free of Sally's spell, and she scrambled to her feet to see Sally and Jack struggling.
-X-
Molly stepped forward, still singing, and knowing the entire time that she was going to fall into the void and never return. Her foot poised over the edge, but Bayou Joe's came rushing back as the world returned to normal. Nobody was controlling her, and she got the overwhelming sense that everything was going to be okay. She got back into her normal concert energy and finished the song.
-X-
"Jack! Watch out!" She ran forward, but she stopped when she saw that Sally was shaking violently. A look of horror on her face, she charged and grabbed Jack, pulling him back and throwing him out of the way. She heard the same sound she'd heard on the rooftop in New York, and a scream escaped her when the evil spirits burst from Sally's fallen form and loomed over her. Swallowing a lump in her throat, she fought through the fear that threatened to paralyze her and reached into her bag, pulling out the jar of brick dust and making a circle around herself and Jack. The spirits flew forward, but shot back when the protective magic repelled them.
"You can't hurt me!" Her words of defiance made the shadows recoil and, before her eyes, they vanished. She let out a huge sigh of relief and fell to her knees, helping Jack up.
"What's going on here, Fi?" He almost fell backwards when his sister latched onto him.
"We're okay, Jack. We're okay." They both got up and walked over to Sally, who was still. "Is she…dead?"
Jack knelt beside her and out two fingers to her neck. "No, she's still alive. Just unconscious."
"Could you carry her outside?" Jack nodded and picked her up, hoisting her into a fireman's carry so he could get her down the ladder. When they were finally outside the club, Fi jumped when she saw Miss Grange standing there.
"Miss Grange, I'm so sorry. It was Sally who was crossing me. She just tried to kill me."
Miss Grange smiled a partial smile. "No, it wasn't her that tried to kill you. She's been tainted by evil. Set her down." Jack did as she asked and she walked over to the girl, waving a hand over her eyes; in a daze, Sally got up. "Don't worry, she's fine. I'm going to bind her powers so she can never open herself up to evil spirits again."
"Thank you so much." Fi smiled at her before turning to Jack. "What do you say we go inside and watch Mom finish her show?"
Jack let out a sigh before chuckling. "You know, I doubt anyone but me would put up with all this." They walked inside just in time for the concert to finish. Molly came backstage, overjoyed; she ran to her kids and swept them up in a hug.
"Mom, you were great! I'm so glad you finished the song!" Fi stepped back and beamed.
"I think I could get used to performing for big crowds! Carey, you were great!" She embraced the guitarist when she saw him emerge from the curtains.
"Well, get used to it. I've been booking you at some pretty popular places!" Irene raised her voice to be heard over the commotion backstage.
Molly turned to Fi with a worried look, but Fi smiled. "Don't worry, Mom. Everything's okay."
-X-
Back in the hotel, after everyone was asleep, Jack put down the book he was reading. What had happened on the roof of the club? How did he know she was up there? When it came to weird stuff, he preferred to put it out of his mind and focus on the fact that he had an amazing family; that was usually enough to make him forget about it. With a sigh, he slid under the covers and turned off the lights; of course, Carey had been asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. In a few minutes, Jack was sound asleep.
-X-
He shivered as the night air penetrated his armor, chilling him to the bone. His horse was fine, which was all that mattered; well, that, and keeping a vigilant eye. There had been reports of bandits attacking people on the roads, and Henri had been adamant at increasing their patrols to ensure that nobody else got robbed.
Suddenly, a glimmer of light in the forest near the road caught his attention; though he knew he shouldn't abandon his patrol, he felt an irresistible urge to follow it. He jumped off of his horse and led it to a tree where he tied it up, making sure the knot was secure before heading in the direction he'd seen the light. He pressed on until he came to a clearing and jumped when a ball of light appeared in front of him. Though he was terrified, he didn't move as it grew to engulf him.