Anthony paused and stared at the streets ahead of us. “I apologize, I tend to get into the details of a story and lose track of where I was at.
“The fire fighters arrived soon, efficiently dousing the flames. However, they also were the unfortunate souls who discovered the secret room in the attic. A room where experiments were done on human subjects.
Over a dozen bodies were found, as well as various body parts lying carelessly around the cluttered room. Most of the slaves found in the room were long dead, yet a few still held a breath of life in them.
These experiments performed on the slaves were torturous, intended to bring pain and suffering for quite some time. The condition of the bodies found is utterly indescribable, with lips and eyes sewn shut, limbs removed, limbs placed in areas where they weren’t supposed to be … one was even found in a small cage with her limbs broken and reset at odd angles, that one was still alive.
The townspeople went into an uproar and an angry mob formed outside the mansion demanding the couple be hanged or punished for their actions. It wasn’t long after the mob arrived outside the home that the LaLaurie family burst through the gates in a carriage and right through the crowd until it disappeared.”
I raised an eyebrow, “So, the place is haunted by the ghosts of these slaves?”
Anthony turned to me with a curious eye. “Why, little Hunter, are you implying that you do not believe in ghosts?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged, but my mind went right to Sostrate, the warrior woman, even though she insisted that she was not a ghost. “Maybe.”
“In any case,” Anthony continued, screams and moans have always been heard from this house. There were several people who went inside and never came out, there were owners who had all of their things destroyed and the apparitions of slaves wandering the halls have been seen by many occupants over the years.
Since the LaLauries abandoned the home, no one has been able to withstand residing there for very long.”
He smiled, “Oh, I almost forgot, the not so pleasing end to this story is that in a recent remodel of the mansion, bodies were found underneath the floorboards. Scratches and pieces of fingernails were found on the underneath of those particular boards, implying that the bodies had been buried while they were still alive.”
I wanted to vomit. “Why … the hell are we going in there?”
Anthony ignored me. “It is a tragic tale that has become a large piece of the haunted history of New Orleans.”
“Good Lord!” Gavin grimaced, “if it’s that haunted, why would the survivors hole up in there?”
Anthony shrugged. “It is possible they think that is the last place the vampires would look. It is in the French Quarter, perhaps the resistance is taking the ‘they will not look right under their noses’ approach. I would also assume, with the way the mansion is set up, that it would be fortifiable. The survivors would obviously need to be in a place where they can erect a substantial defense.”
I nodded. That made sense. But, from what Anthony told us about the history of the place, I wasn’t sure that I really wanted to go inside.
“New Orleans has a deep history, full of ghost stories and tales of witchcraft.” Anthony stared out the window at the tombs in one of the cemeteries as we passed. “At this moment we are making another chapter in the history books. I intend to record the events for the world to know of later on. In the future, when children go back to school they will learn of the battle for the city … for the world, and they will hear how the Hunters joined with the survivors to fight the vampires. It will be a magnificent story, of that I am positive.”
No one said anything after that, probably because nothing seemed appropriate. What did seem appropriate was leaving the conversation on that note … the one where we succeed.
We parked the cars in a parking garage on the outskirts of the French Quarter, deciding it would be safer and not as noticeable if we went the rest of the way on foot. Nobody spoke as we followed Anthony over the broken sidewalks into the heart of the city.
As we passed the shops, bars and restaurants, I wished that I had been able to see New Orleans before the Vampire Apocalypse. I would have loved to sit at one of the tables outside the Café Du Monde and have their famous beignets and coffee. I wanted to take the tours of the plantations, with their trees draped in Spanish moss and picture perfect beauty. I wanted to eat authentic Cajun food and listen to live music. I wanted peace, I wanted normal, and I wanted a vacation from hunting vampires.
Anthony didn’t always stick to the streets, he took us through several alleyways in order to be more discreet. He led the way, but I brought up the rear, since he and I both had super hearing it just made sense that way.