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Out Of The Shadows

Sonia Segura

    I can remember a time when things that go bump in the night were the stuff of nightmares. I was always scared and ended up sleeping with my Grandma. She lived with my family and I in humid Louisiana.
    My name is Vivienne and that was many years ago. I’m all grown up and hopefully somewhat wiser. At thirty I decided to change careers after having worked in many jobs. Some of them were interesting, like being a wedding planner, and some were dull, like my job as a bank teller, to as crazy as helping to mentally rehabilitate wild animals at a zoo. If you ask me I think the people there needed rehabilitating, but that’s just my opinion. I’ve always felt like there was something missing in my life, maybe it was love, for I had never been in love. I might have believed in the boogie man but never that true love existed. It isn’t real and I truly believe it is a made up word by people who need to get a life. I definitely needed change in my life and I thought that a new job was just what I needed. Little did I know that this new job was going to be an eye opener for me. Everything I thought I believed and didn’t believe was about to change my life. My new job consisted of taking people on tours of antebellum mansions, and believe me Louisiana is loaded with them! It is a small touring company owned by a woman my boss, Janice. She is a very nice person, maybe a little quirky. She is totally into that paranormal stuff. When I met her she stared at me for a moment and hired me on the spot! She told me she had to hire me because it was meant to be this way. I thought it was an odd thing to say. I went home that evening after the interview, excited, but at the same time I had a strange feeling like something was going to change my life. I know I have never felt this way and it was very disconcerting. I decided I would do my job to the best of my ability and drive the tourists around from one mansion to another.
     I sure did love my Louisiana history! Okay maybe not the ghosty part of it! I have to say that so far I have not been bored with my new job. Which in my case was rare. The first week went by smoothly. I had three tours and met very interesting people. I have always been a history buff and this job really tested my knowledge.
    And this is the second week of my job and the beginning of my incredible story. It was a Friday tour which meant I was off for the weekend after the tour ended. I had laundry to do and cleaning to catch up with at my tiny apartment. Hopefully my old air conditioner would not go out on me, while I was doing this. That was only if I was lucky! This was the last tour of the day. I had six people in my group, two couples and two single young women. We all met at the touring company and were heading to to one of the mansions I had not been to. I was a little excited because this is one of the mansions that had all kinds of mystery surrounding it. The two couples were on their honeymoons. They were so into each other that I doubt they were paying too much attention to my relating of the story. The two single young women seemed very interested and were hanging on my every word. I think partly because the owner of the plantation had been said to be very good looking. He had been a very prosperous young and wealthy tobacco grower. On my research of this particular mansion I had found out that he had married very young. He had also lost his wife to an outbreak of measles. I was looking forward to seeing the mansion myself as this would be the first time I would see this famous place. We drove up the driveway, lined with its enormous oak trees covered in Spanish moss. It was beautiful! Even the honeymooners were awestruck! The front doors were big and ornate with beautiful carvings and the initials L. C. for Laurent Carbonierre. I had read in one of the books at the tour guide office that Laurent had built this spectacular mansion for his new bride, but when she died he just seemed to have let it go. There was so much mystery surrounding this place and also talk about people seeing lights in the mansion and catching glimpses of shadows at the windows. I was a such a chicken when it came to ghost stories like this one and the South was full of them! He, Laurent, was a mystery and every thing surrounding him as well. I had tried finding more information about him and how he had died and the date of his death, but I could not find anything. The only thing I had found out was that in the main salon there was a painting of Laurent and his wife, Marie. My group and I entered the mansion and sure enough it was as I had read in the tour book. It was fantastic! The Guilds, whose job is to restore these old relics had done a marvelous job. It looked so regal with the heavy purple velvet drapes with a touch of lavender lace on the edge. The period furnishings were upholstered in purple damask. It was just amazing!
    But, what was more amazing than the mansion itself was in the middle of the room above the fireplace! The famous painting of the couple! My companions and I gasped! Sure, Marie was very pretty. Some would say she was beautiful. But the the women in my group, even the married ones and myself would have had to agree that what had astounded us most was Laurent’s beauty! By far, he had to be the most “handsomest,” “beautifulest” man in the world-at least we thought! He had a sculpted face with a high cheek bones and a strong jaw. His hair was the color of shiny ravens wings. But it was his eyes, the color of the clearest bluest skies. He seemed as if he was staring into your soul! I felt as if he was looking into my soul and my heart as well.
    I know I had said I had never been in love before, but damn! If my heart wasn’t beating a mile a minute. All the women in the tour were making comments as to how they wish they had met him when he was alive and wondered if his voice would have sounded sexy. And they wondered if maybe they would have had a chance to win his attention. All I was doing was looking up at those hypnotic eyes in the painting and feeling as if he could reach deep inside my heart and make me want things I had never realized I wanted. Well that certainly was a first for me. While I don’t consider myself beautiful I also know I am not chopped liver! At 5&039; 8 I am taller then most of the women in my family. My weight hovers between 125 to 130 depending on the time of the month and how much chocolate I had consumed. My brown hair has golden highlights reaching the middle of my back in curly waves. Okay, maybe the highlights were my hair colorist’s doing. I always thought my best feature was my cat eyes, the color of new leaves. I have had my share of handsome men wanting to win my attention, although I had not had a chance to have a relationship. I guess maybe from all the the jobs, and trying to find myself and where I fit in the world, I just never had time!
    Since usually I’m afraid of anything that mentions any type of ghostly sighting, I had to wonder about myself and why I would even fantasize about a guy that had long been dead? But somehow I did not feel fear, but curiosity.
    After going through the mansion and oohing and aahhing we exited through the rear of the mansion to view the beautiful gardens. We were coming to the end of the tour. I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed the tour and many questions were asked that I didn’t have answers for. When I got back to the office I decided to do some googling on the internet to see if I could find out more on Laurent. But I came up with almost the same information as before, which was zilch. Later on that night after I got home to my apartment I couldn’t stop thinking of Laurent. I could not stop seeing his eyes and remembering how I had felt out of my mind. For some reason I felt compelled to go back to the mansion. I had no idea why. I just needed to. I felt I had to go back. I still had the keys that were supposed to be returned back to the Guild the following day. The mansion was located out in the country, forty- five minutes from town. So I went on a mission that I had no idea where it was going or where it would lead. All I knew was that I had to go and nothing was going to stop me. It seemed like it took no time to drive back to the mansion.
    It was so dark out there all the light I could see were the stars and the moon that illuminated the mansion. I entered the mansion and had the strangest feeling. Like I was being watched! Sure I was feeling scared, but there was also an air of excitement. I felt my life was never going to be the same! I walked into the main salon, where the the painting of Laurent hung. And there by the fireplace looking up at the painting was Laurent himself! He was something to behold! I must have made some sort of sound because he turned around and looked at me straight in the eyes. My curiosity was stronger then me wanting to faint. So the first words that came out of my mouth was, “How is this possible? How can you be standing here? Are you a ghost? Am I the only one that can see you? And hey, why me?”
    He told me, “I am here for you and because of you.” He gave me the most sweetest and sexiest smile and all I could do was melt. Then I had to make myself stop thinking of all that gooey stuff and get back to reality. I told him to please explain what was going on. He started to relate a most unimaginable tale. He was born in France in the year 1277 and had become a Knight Templar later when he was old enough to become a member. They were the most skilled fighting units and were tied closely to the the crusades. When the Holy Land was lost, support for the order faded. There were rumors about the Templars secret blood initiation ceremony and how it created mistrust. In 1307 many of the orders’ members in France were arrested and tortured into giving false confessions and then burned at the stake.
    “Okay. Time out here. How is it that you are here and alive after all these centuries? How can that be?
    Laurent, asked “Can’t you guess? You know how I mentioned the secret blood initiation ceremony? Well, we were ordered to drink from a cup at the time of initiation and were told we would be strong and unstoppable; that we would be immortal. At the time I didn’t think anything about it. I was young. I had no idea that I was committing to something beyond my comprehension. What were my fellow members and myself drinking was the blood of Adam’s first wife Lilith, she was the first vampire.”
    I was speechless! It seemed so incredible! Call me slow but.....“Are you saying you are a vampire?”
    Laurent said “Yes, that is what I am saying. I don’t want you to be scared.” He went on to tell me that all the myths about vampires being evil and wanting to suck everyone’s blood were not true. He said he needed blood but not all the time and when he did, it never harmed anyone. The only person that could break the blood curse and give him back his life was his soul mate. He told me that light burning him was a myth and that only fire could destroy him. That’s how a lot of his companions had died. He also told me how he had escaped from France and had wandered and hidden from his prosecutors until ending up in America. He had thought Marie was his soul mate, but she turned out not be. He had great affection towards her but had not been in love with her. He said he had a very strange feeling like his forever life was coming to an end. He had thought that maybe somehow he was going to die. Well, his other life, the immortal one was coming to an end, but his new life was just beginning. Because guess what? I was his soul mate. The one person who could break the the blood curse. I guess the hows and whys of it didn’t matter. I had finally found what I didn’t know I was looking for. I guess my boss, Janice, was right when she had hired me because it was meant to be.

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