Possession

"Zadyé jadyé chér sér. (Goodbye, goodbye dear sister)

Zadyé jadyé chér sér. No senyér m a di, ye. Il ora pitchye de nou, Moman,. Móman il e mó. (Goodbye, goodbye dear sister. Our Lord told me he will have pity on us, Mother. Mother she is dead)

Móman, Móman il e mó. No senyér m a di, ye Il ora pitchye de noun, zadye. Zadye chér fré. (Mother, mother she is dead. Our Lord told me he will have pity on us, goodbye. Goodbye dear brother)

Jadyé jadyé chér frér. No senyér m a di Ill ora pitchye de noun. (Goodbye, goodbye, dear brother. Our Lord told me he will have pity on us)

It was a Creole song, Danielle hadn't heard it since she was a small child. The song was sung in a low, sweet voice, drifting from down the street. Danielle looked in the direction she thought it was coming from, and saw a figure slowly making its way towards her. She couldn't tell who it was, other than it was a woman. The shifting shadows of the oaks overhead gave the figure a sensuous movement as it glided slowly in and out of the random shafts of sunlight, hips moving from side to side with an overt sexuality. Lulled by the song, and the drowsy afternoon, Danielle closed her eyes, and leaned back against the swing.

The song gradually grew louder, and then stopped. Danielle opened her eyes to see Nicole standing on the other side of the iron gate, smiling a small, secret smile. The smile grew larger, and then Nicole said, "Did I startle you, ma cheré? I surely didn't mean to."

Although Nicole had startled her, Danielle wasn't about to admit it. "No, of course not! C'mon, girl, you know better than that."

Nicole opened the gate, and then came up the stairs to the porch, her steps slow and smooth. Danielle had to struggle to keep from cringing away from Nicole when she sat down on the swing next to her. Nicole pushed the swing a little, got it moving again, and then leaned back, seemingly relaxed, but Danielle could see the muscles in her arms, tense and hard.

"My parents are going to be out tonight," Nicole began, "I think that I'll invite Gabriel over for the evening. We haven't had any time alone for awhile, you know what I mean?" She turned to Danielle with that last, and winked, a parody of the Nicole Danielle had known most of her life.

"They'll be out all night?" Danielle had a hard time just looking at her, suspecting that it wasn't even Nicole that she was talking to.

"Of course, bébé, you know how they are. Oh, they say they'll be in eventually, but it will be in the small hours of the morning. Plenty of time to do what I want to do."

The fall sunlight dimmed as a cloud slipped in front of the sun, and Danielle felt goosebumps raise up on her arms, whether from the sudden change in temperature or from Nicole's last statement, she wasn't sure. Part of her wanted to discount everything she had seen, and yet there was a niggling little voice that kept telling her she hadn't been imagining anything.

Nicole's voice interrupted her thoughts, "What are your plans for the evening, doux l'un?"

"I think I'm just going to stay here and study. I haven't gotten as much done as I'd like, so it looks like a boring evening for me. But, have fun with Gabe." Danielle knew that if it was Nicole she was talking to that her voice would betray her true thoughts, and she prayed that it didn't.

"Oh, petite fille, I will ... I will." With that, Nicole got up from the swing, and headed towards the gate to the street, but stopped once she was there, and turned, one hand on the gate. "You know, don't you ma cheré, that sometimes it's best not to poke your nose in where it doesn't belong?"

Danielle opened her mouth to speak, and found that her mouth was too dry to get any words past her lips. She nodded instead, cursing herself for her cowardice.

Nicole smiled again, sure that her message had gotten across, and then she went out the gate, and down the street towards her home, singing once again "Zadyé jadyé chér sér. Fré il e mó ..."

Danielle heard the last phrase, "Brother he is dead," and had to lean over the side of the porch as she was violently ill.

* * *

Danielle stood in front of the window in her bedroom, seeing but not seeing the street in front of her house. She glanced over at the clock. Nine o'clock, and she had started for the door, and Nicole's house, a dozen times already, but had been unable to muster up the courage and conviction to actually go.

She whirled around, mind finally made up, and headed down the stairs at a run, and then out the front door. Her pace slowed once she went out the gate to the street, and she almost turned back, but thoughts of what might be happening at Nicole's house kept her going. She wasn't sure what she would find once she got there, but she prayed the entire way down the street that she was mistaken.

As she approached Nicole's house, she found herself repeating under her breath, "Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen."

She stepped noiselessly up the steps to the porch, and then crossed to the door, hoping it was unlocked. She twisted the knob slowly, thanking whoever was looking after her, and then slipped through the front door, and closed it behind her with only a small click to betray her presence.

There weren't any lights on downstairs, only the light on the stairs leading up to the second floor. Danielle could hear Nicole's and Gabriel's voices, but it wasn't clear what was being said. There was the sound of furniture creaking, and Danielle was afraid she was interrupting an intimate moment, but she wasn't sure, and couldn't take the chance that it was something much less pleasant.

She went slowly up the steps, walking close to the wall to be sure the old steps didn't creak and give her approach away. The landing was in a pool of light, and Nicole's bedroom was just past the landing, the door standing about halfway open. Danielle could see the flickering lights of candles through the door and slowed even more, unsure of what was happening inside the room. She was worried they would see her when she got to the landing, but she needn't have worried, they were focused only on themselves.

When Danielle was beside Nicole's bedroom door, she sank down to her knees, reasoning that they wouldn't see her as easily closer to the floor. She eased her head around the doorframe, unable to see anything distinct at first because of the darkness in the room, but her eyes gradually adjusted, and she saw that Nicole and Gabriel were making love on Nicole's bed.

The wavering light from the candles made the scene almost surreal as she watched, feeling guilty for watching, but frightened that things weren't as they seemed.

Nicole was riding Gabriel, thigh muscles tense and back arched. While Danielle watched, Nicole's rhythm became faster and rougher, and her hands curled into claws, long manicured nails painted blood red. Nicole raked her nails down Gabriel's chest, and he moaned, head thrown back and eyes closed, and pumped his hips up into Nicole harder.

Nicole started chanting as she rode Gabriel towards her climax, "Je vous maudis, altérer John, pouvoir vous brûle dans l'enfer à jamais; pouvoir vous brûle dans l'enfer à jamais." Her voice became louder with each repetition.

Danielle reached back into the recesses of her childhood, and the french she had understood so effortlessly then, trying to decipher what Nicole was saying. She watched, and mouthed the words that Nicole was chanting.

Gabriel reached for Nicole's hips, moving her up and down on his cock, face contorted with the effort and his impending release.

The meaning of Nicole's words popped into Danielle's mind: I curse you, Dr. John, may you burn in hell forever, may you burn in hell forever, and she gasped with understanding.

Gabriel was too intent upon the sight of Nicole, impaled and writhing on his cock, to hear Danielle, but Nicole heard, and turned her head to smile a predator's smile at Danielle. Nicole held Danielle's eyes with her own gold gaze, and reached behind her, picking up something that she had hidden under the blankets beside her.

Gabriel groaned out loudly, "Oh my god, Nicole!" and brought her hard down on him, muscles hard and sweat gleaming in the light of the candles . Nicole broke their gaze at the sound of her name, and turning to face Gabriel, she raised a butcher knife over her head, and while Danielle watched, frozen, Nicole screamed, "I am Marie Laveau, and I will have my revenge, NOW!"

Danielle's muscles moved of their own accord, and she leaped from the doorway, screaming Nicole's name. Nicole's body was slick with the sweat of sex, and Danielle's right hand went for the hand Nicole held the knife in, wrapping her left arm around Nicole's waist.

They toppled off the bed, Nicole spitting and hissing in rage, wrestling for control of the knife. It was between them, Danielle's hand wrapped around Nicole's on the handle, trying desperately to wrench it away, and Nicole had focused on Danielle as the new source of her rage.

The two women rolled, Danielle coming up on top, and Nicole gave a harsh gasp, and was still, gold leeching out of the eyes as they turned back to the green they were, knife sticking up from her chest. Danielle backed away with a sob, refusing to believe that Nicole was gone. She held up her bloodied hands and started to scream, keening her loss.

Gabriel was with her suddenly, his arms around her, rocking her, and saying small soothing things, as tears ran down his own face.

"My God, Gabe! What have I done?" she sobbed. "She was ... I saw ... She was going to stab you..."

"Dani, you couldn't help it. Danielle, you tried! I don't know what got into her. She was acting strange all day, she was like an animal. You stopped her -- I know you didn't mean to kill her."

Gabe looked down at Nicole's bloody form, "Oh God, she's gone ... Nicole!" Gabriel shouted his own anguish to the roof, holding tightly to Danielle, both of them sitting on the floor.

After a moment, Danielle calmed, the sobs leaving her. She pulled back from Gabriel, a strange look in her gold eyes, the corners of her lips twisting in a wry smile as she reached for the knife. "It will be fine, ma chere, you'll see, tout sera bien."