The car gave up on a very inconvenient time. Although I managed to get into Louisiana, I'm still too far away from the nearest airport. On foot, I managed to make it into a place called St-Francisville. I tried to find a place to spend the night, but there was no vacancy anywhere. Because of some book that was published a couple of years back, this town drew more tourists than ever before, particularly this Myrtle's Plantation, as that is where a part of the book took place. If I'm to believe the guy who wrote this, there was something hidden in the plantation (the legendary Soul Edge, of all things), that drew many things to this town. Among those things, ghosts are among them. Of course the book in question is fiction, but still it was enough to draw people here.
It's funny that I somehow overlooked this town when I made up I itinerary. Then again, after all things, I don't think I'd have had much time to explore this area anyhow, even if I planned to.
I managed to find this one plantation that didn't belong to anyone, so I don't think anyone would mind if I crashed down here. Wonder who this "Ellerslie" person was to whom this once belonged. I mean it is called "Ellerslie Plantation", so I assume this belonged to someone by that name.
As I'm writing this however, I do feel cold sometimes. Don't know why. I also thought I heard someone call my name, heard furniture being moved, and thought I saw a shadow. Guess I'm just seeing things, knowing that this town is known for it's ghosts. Not mention how exhausted I am, which helps me to stop thinking beyond the stories. It's possible there are indeed ghosts here, it's possible that it's another trick of my mind. If I immediately assume the former, that would be the day I lost my sanity forever, so I hope that I'm just seeing things.
Saturday, August 2nd 2008:
As I feared, I should've assumed the former. I woke up at some point during the night, feeling as though something was dragging me away. When I woke up, I got spooked to see... well, nothing actually, it was like something invisible was dragging me away. I could only just hold on to something, at which point that invisible something could no longer drag me away. Unfortunately, that didn't keep the doors from shutting themselves, or the lights from flickering. There was no doubt then that I was dealing with a ghost, perhaps even more than one. In a mirror, I saw something that looked like a illuminated rotten corpse, yet when I looked around, I didn't see anything, only in the mirror. Since the door had shut itself, and locked itself in the progress, I could only try to find something that would help destroy the door, so I can get through. Since I didn't want to see that zombie apparition anymore, I decided to use the mirror's frame. It was one of those old ones that used very strong wood, so there was only a danger of the mirror itself breaking, but not the frame. In the end, the door indeed broke, so I could get my stuff and get out. Okay, it wasn't that easy, as the front door, too, locked itself, so I had to break a window to get out.
I ran away from St-Francisville as fast as I could. I don't know how far I ran, until I finally met with this guy. I don't know why he was still awake this late at night, but then, am I not supposed to be asleep myself? He asked me the same question, but if I told him why I was awake, he probably won't be much help to get me out of the state. He did recognize that I was in a panic, so he decided not to ask me anything anymore, besides where I was going. He himself was headed back to his hometown in Arkansas, which isn't on my route, so he still wasn't of much help. But when I told him I was headed to Florida, he did promise to bring me to a friend of his, which is where we're headed right now.
If you're curious to know, this guy, who did tell me his name but doesn't want me to mention it here (either that, or not mention what he's told me about himself), he only helped me because he too has been running for the most part of his life. Mostly from the law. He therefor assumed that I must be doing the same. Though, he did seem to have something else in his mind as well, but he didn't want to tell me. My guess, with all the people I've met up to now, he too has met with someone, or something, in the same nature, but doesn't want to tell me. I tried to get him to tell me what it is, but he wouldn't spill. I suppose this should be a sign for me that I should stay out of Arkansas.
Okay, we arrived at his friend, who's now flying me to Florida. And I don't mean he's a pilot that's flying, I mean he's the machine that is flying. Seriously, when we arrived at a small airfield, that guy I described pointed me to his friend, but all I saw was an old helicopter. That's when the helicopter showed me his face. It's windshield has... I mean is it's eyes, and it's nose (or what people would describe as a helicopter's nose) is it's mouth. First, it'll drop that guy off in Arkansas, after which it'll take me to Florida. He was willing to do this for free, as he was planning to take some kind of vacation anyway, after helping that guy. Two birds with one stone, pardon the pun.
Now that I'm alone, having nothing else but the helicopter to talk to, he asked me if I'm looking forward to the race of the century. Although I told him I'm not interested in racing, he still wanted me to know about some race between one all-time champion, someone by the name of Herbie, versus some McQueen guy. And judging from the way he spoke of both of them, I don't think he was talking about humans but cars. Right now, I can only hope that we'll arrive in Florida pretty soon.
Note: the notion of Soul Edge being in St-Francisville is a reference to another story of mine, namely "Soul Caliur 2005"