Jillian Chantal

This week, the writers of Tuesday Tales are writing to the word prompt carry. I am still working on the fantasy story where the heroine can talk to spirits.

Check out the other tales here

A woman stood in front of the old courthouse that Lu knew used to be the U.S. Customs House and Post Office when it was first built.

The woman in front of it was dressed as if she was from the early 1920s. She wore a a blue dress that appeared brown in spots which Lu recognized as dried blood. One side of the lady’s head was caved in. Lu couldn’t see the back of it to determine if she’d landed on her side or back when she took her fatal jump from the fourth floor of the building she stood before.

Molly joined them as they walked across the crowded street. Some of the Mardi Gras partiers seemed to be determined to make a night of it even though the parade was over.

Barkley stepped over to the woman. “This is the lady I told you about who is helping the local police force. She wanted a word.”

Lu glanced around at the crowd. “Can we go over to the little alcove on the side of the building? Being here on the main road where the bars and restaurants are is dangerous for me to carry on a conversation since I’m the only one—besides Aneto—who anyone can see. I’ll look like a lunatic standing here talking to myself.”

“All right. I saw that person who is killing people,” the woman said.

“Not yet. Back there,” Lu used her left index finger to point subtly toward the side of the building where the city usually put up a life size gingerbread cottage at Christmas.

When they got around the corner, only one guy was there and he was in the corner puking up all the beer or whatever he’d imbibed during the course of the day.

“He won’t mind us,” Lu said. “And even if he did, he’d probably think he was hallucinating if he saw any of you or wondered who I was speaking with.”

The woman glared. “You do not seem to be taking me seriously.” She burst into tears. “Just like when I was alive, no one listens to me.”

This was exactly what Lu had feared about the lady. That she was saying she saw the murderer so she could get some attention. There were quite a number of spirits in this old city that had been settled for many hundreds of years. It seems this lady wanted to be the center of attention of their world for a little while.