PROLOGUE

 

 

Eddie Shavers, an aspirational African American sixteen-year-old and son of a prominent shrimping tycoon was living comfortably in his family’s plantation converted mansion located on the outskirts of Vernon Parish, Louisiana.  Attending Leesville High School, he had dreams of becoming a Wampus Cats football star and local hero. He’d worked hard during his year on the junior varsity team to make the cut for the varsity squad for his senior year.  But instead, he found himself on the varsity practice squad.  It seemed to him that his dreams of stardom would never come true.  But then, strange things began to happen in the attic of the mansion. He suddenly began to experience a phenomenon that was uncomprehensible for someone his age but would change his life forever.

    His grandpa Phillipe Shavers, nicknamed Pepe, who was the son of an archaeological artifacts’ trader named Archibald Shavers, had been his biggest inspiration since Eddie’s mother had passed away and his father was constantly away on business trips. 

    One month earlier, Pepe had passed away from what was diagnosed as a massive heart attack at Byrd Memorial Hospital in Leesville.  After days of hearing static noises coming from the attic, Eddie climbed up to the attic one night via a pull-down ladder and found the ghost of Pepe encapsulated in a standing mirror.

     Eddie was in total shock and disbelief.  The ghost was clutching a circular-shaped, shining gold medallion. It was handmade of copper, hammered and shaped into a disc with a glowing turquoise stone in the center, and small inlet beads with alternating white and black stones, on its outer ring, symbolizing night and day, balance, and duality.  Between each bead, a fine line etching formed arrowhead shapes, pointing clockwise, evoking the circle of time and movement of life. The medallion gave off an aura of mystery and reverence, like it belonged to the earth and to something beyond. Native-American tribesman had long treasured medallions for their spiritual and protective properties and often buried them with senior elders.  The medallion appeared to Eddie to be remarkably like the one Pepe possessed and showed his grandson shortly before his death.  With his last dying wish, he had asked Eddie to place the medallion into his casket at the viewing, which Eddie obliged without knowing the reason.   

    Eddie searched his brain for a plausible explanation of what he was witnessing. Was he staring at a hologram? Was there a hidden projector playing this image from a remote control?                                          

     He quickly stared around the room along the walls as the ghost remained silent momentarily, with a grin.  Eddie didn’t locate a hidden camera or anything that would suggest that someone was tricking him into seeing an image in the glass that didn’t exist.  Then, his left leg became numb as he hobbled back over to the mirror.

    “What were you looking for, grandson?” the image asked.

    “This isn’t real, I’m getting out of here!” Eddie uttered. It was more than the young lad could manage. He dashed towards the attic hatch and began to pull it up.

    Then, the ghost said, “Where are you going, grandson?” Don’t leave. I am not going to hurt you.”

    Eddie wheeled around, swallowing so hard he almost choked on his own saliva.  He began shaking in disbelief. He then thought he was dreaming but quickly realized he was in a conscious state.  How could this be? he thought aloud.  He became even more frightened as he pondered whether to leave.  Eddie then grabbed hold of the mirror and turned it over.  There was nothing visible but the cardboard back covering. He turned the mirror over and there was the ghost Pepe, smiling at him.

    “Don’t try to find another explanation, grandson,” he said.  “It’s me.  You helped bring me back.”

    Eddie whined, “But grandpa, you’re supposed to be dead.  I was at your funeral and burial.”

    “Oh, I’m very much alive,” the ghost responded. “And I came back to help you.” 

    “No-no! I must be sick or hallucinating.  Or this is all just a dream. Eddie concluded, whispering his thoughts to himself.  Then, he declared in a normal tone, “This can’t be happening.”  He was verbally searching for answers for what he was witnessing.

   Suddenly, the medallion came out of the mirror and fell onto the floor in front of him with a loud thud.  By appearance it seemed to me the size of a car’s hub cap, but it sounded like an anvil when it hit the floor and the entire attic shook.

    “Go ahead and pick it up!” the ghost said, noticing the terrified look on Eddie’s face.  “It won’t harm you.  I’m giving it to you.”

    Eddie noticed it was still glowing along with the room being still warm.  His first instinct told him that if he touched it, it would burn him.  But he dismissed his fears and touched it with his left middle finger.  It didn’t burn him. So, he picked it up and looked at it curiously.  It bore the same inscription as Pepe's casket: a sun over mountains with "Lakota" in the center.

    Eddie quickly asked the ghost, “Did you get this from the Sioux nation?”

    The ghost sighed and replied, “It’s not important for you to know right now how I acquired it.  What is important is that you put it around your neck and never take it off your body and you must never give it to anyone.”

    “Why? Eddie asked.  “What is this all about? What will happen if I do?”

    The ghost looked into Eddie’s eyes and said slowly.  “You will learn in time, my grandson.  It will make you experience extraordinary things.”   

    Eddie quickly became more frightened and said, “I don’t know.  I don’t want to do this.  I’m scared.”  

    As he started to place back on the floor, the ghost shouted, “No! Don’t release it.  Now that you’ve touched it, it will be terrible if you let it go?”

    Eddie’s brow furrowed as he asked in a quivering voice, “What does that mean?”

    “You have to trust me,” the ghost answered firmly.  “Just do as I say, trust me and you will get all the answers.  Most of all, don’t be afraid.  I came back to help you, but your journey will be challenging and meaningful.”  

    At that moment, a cloud of smoke appeared in the mirror and moments later, as it cleared, the mirror showed Eddie’s own reflection.  “Hey, where’d you go?” Eddie asked.  As there was no response, Eddie placed the medallion chord around his neck as the ghost asked.   He was now more afraid that he didn’t follow the ghost’s instructions, something bad would happen to him. He now surmised that he was talking to the ghost of his grandfather Pepe, but he had now seen and heard enough. Within seconds, he was down the ladder and running down the hallway. The darkness of the house increased his fear and bewilderment. His heart was pumping like a piston engine. He ran through the hallway, skidded on the toes of his Nike sneakers coming to a stop before stumbling down the stairs. At that point it all hit him at once. There was pain in both his chest and his knees, bringing tears to his eyes. 

    Eddie suddenly paused for several moments at the bottom of the steps as he momentarily stared at a picture on the wall of the landing of Pepe in a classroom behind a podium when he was a guest speaker on archeology and antiquities during a Distinguished Lecture Series event at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches.  Nellie and Pepe had brought the painting to the mansion when they moved in.  John was so proud of his father that he hung the portrait on the stairwell landing. 

    Suddenly, Eddie heard the front doorbell ring.  It was Jimmy and Roy.  Eddie gasped for air and tried to compose himself. He thought for a moment that the entire day was a bad dream. But the knock on the door convinced him that he was in a conscious state. 

    Eddie rushed over to the door and opened it to Jimmy and Roy with wide grins on their faces.  Their mission to cheer Eddie up had begun with their expressions, but they instantly noticed the strange look on Eddie’s face.

    “What’s up, dawg?” Jimmy asked as he quickly converted to a look of concern for his best friend. “You’re sweating and look pale.  Are you, okay?”

    Roy followed, “Yeah, man.  You look like you just seen a ghost or something.”

    Eddie stared at them silently, his thoughts saying to himself, Man, if you only knew!

 

CHAPTER 1

​

Eddie decided not to disclose what he’d just witnessed in the attic, to his friends and fellow Leesville High School Wampus Cats football teammates Jimmy Oliphant and Roy Jones… not the strange static, not the noises, and certainly not the appearance of the ghost of his grandfather Phillipe “Pepe’ Shavers.  He knew that Jimmy and Roy would rather think he was totally off his rocker or that he’d been smoking weed that morning and had been hallucinating.  Neither was an acceptable conclusion he’d want them to draw.  So, he decided to remain hush about it.

    “What do you mean, if only we knew?” Roy asked Eddie as he stared over at Jimmy with a curious look regarding Eddie’s statement.

    “Did you hear me mumbling?” Eddie asked divisively. “I thought I was thinking to myself.”

    Leaning, Jimmy homed in, “No, bro!  You were talking loudly, and we heard that.  What are you talking about?”

    Quick to change the subject, Eddie replied with a feigned smile, “Dudes! Never mind.  What you got up for today?”

    Jimmy and Roy glanced at each other momentarily, with pursed lips, both feeling that Eddie was putting them off on something he obviously didn’t want to talk about.  But neither of them wanted to pry into their friend’s personal life without an invitation so they subconsciously agreed to shove off the comment.

    “No worries, bro!” Roy replied.  “If it’s something you don’t want to talk about right now, we’re good with that. Jimmy and Roy nodded in unison, both knowing that if it were bothering Eddie, he would confide in them later.

    Eddie suggested, “Let’s just go hang out at Fatboy and Skinny’s, grab some burgers and check out the women.”

    Roy responded, “Yeah, cool!” Moving closer and patting Eddie on his shoulder, Roy added, “You’d better not let Karla hear you say that.”

    The three chuckled, then, Eddie said, “Not worried.  We’re tight.  Let me just check the house and lock it up.  You guys hang tight.” 

    Eddie didn’t want either of them entering the mansion and hearing noises from the attic.

    Jimmy and Roy decided to return to Jimmy’s car and check their phones and social media feeds while they waited.

    While inspecting the mansion's exterior doors, he forced himself to set aside his sense of shock from seeing his grandfather's ghost.  If not, Jimmy and Roy would question him relentlessly until he caved.  Whatever the ghost of Pepe had in mind, Eddie wasn’t ready or willing to participate.  

    As Eddie walked back towards the front door, he slowed his pace to think, mumbling to himself, what made this happen?  Is there something in this house that triggered a haunting by my grandfather?  Asking himself those questions made him realize he doubted Pepe’s stated intentions. 

    Eddie stopped for a moment a few feet from the front door.  It suddenly dawned on him that there were indeed a lot of strange things that had occurred in the house over the past couple of years that he’d ignored. He thought about the many times he heard creaking floorboards, which he and his father John dismissed as the foundation just resettling after many years.  Then, there was the cold draft in his room despite the thermostat being set to 70 degrees, which he’d dismissed as a HVAC issue.  He’d dismissed the lights flickering off and on in the upstairs hallway as something wrong with the internal wiring, which Pepe and Nellie continually took for granted.  But then, the static noise from the attic made him realize that for some mystical reason, Pepe had decided to return.  Eddie doubted it was just because of him. 

    Eddie quickly walked back over to the living room sofa and sat down.  He needed time to think.  So, he texted Jimmy and Roy and told them he had to use the restroom and check a couple of other things in the house so he would be a few more minutes before he came outside.  

    Jimmy and Roy acknowledged and were good with it because they had a lot of surfing the net and perusing their social media feeds to do.

    As Eddie sat stoically, he suddenly wondered if what the ghost Pepe had told him was the truth.  He’d never seen Pepe wearing those clothes nor had he seen that outfit anywhere in the closets or the rest of the house.  It made him suddenly question the motives behind his grandfather’s return as a ghost. A myriad of questions quickly rocketed through his mind.

    Did grandpa’s ghost come back for another reason?  Is he really a good ghost here to help me or is there a sinister reason for his return?  Did he come back to haunt Grandma Nellie?  Did she do something to him to cause him to die so suddenly and strangely?  I don’t know what was going on in their marriage and he’s come back to seek revenge against her.

    Eddie shook his head vigorously to try and remove the thoughts.  His suspicions were gone, and he no longer had enough information to interpret them.    

   Suddenly, he remembered a few weeks ago Nellie was cooking and sent him to her bedroom to retrieve her glasses for her and Eddie noticed a book on the nightstand with the title Parapsychology in the 21st Century. He had dismissed the book until now, but it was obvious now to him that she was studying that phenomenon for some reason.

   Grandma was expecting him to return, he thought to himself.  I’d better talk to someone about this.  She could be in danger. As much as he loved Pepe, he cringed at the thought that Pepe had returned in a ghostly form to exact revenge against her.  His instincts told him he had to do something to prevent this possibility…but what?

 

​

CHAPTER 2

​

     

Minutes later, Eddie was out of the house and riding in the back seat of Jimmy’s car as they departed the estate grounds. As they traveled down the wooded access road away from the estate, Eddie leaned forward and asked, “Hey guys, do you believe in the supernatural, like parapsychology stuff?”

    Jimmy asked, “What are you talking about?”

    Eddie explained, ‘You know, hauntings.”

    Roy asked him, “You mean your crib?”

    Eddie quickly diverted, “No, nothing like that.  I just been reading about it, and I think it’s fascinating.”

    Jimmy and Roy looked at each other and chuckled.

    Eddie said, “Seriously dudes.  I’d like to know more about it from an expert.”

    Jimmy and Roy furrowed their brows simultaneously. Then Jimmy said, “Man, you’re tripping.  I don’t know why you’re interested in that spooky stuff, but you can google it and see what you can find out about it.”

    Roy interjected, “I saw a show about supernatural inhabitants on cable.  It’s some kind of parapsychology stuff.”

    At that moment, Eddie got a hit on the browser, “Hey, I found this weblink to . . .  Louisiana Spirits Paranormal Phenomenon. There’s a guy’s contact information here. His name is Chester Tonally.”

    Jimmy furrowed his brow and asked, “Does it ask for any money?”
    Eddie looked closely at every link, then answered,” It doesn’t look like it?

    Jimmy then asked, “Do you see a bio?”

    Eddie replied, “No bio.  What are you getting at?”

    Roy homed in, “I think Jimmy cautioning you about potential scams.”

    Jimmy had indeed a need for concern.  His father lost thousands of dollars to a fraudulent literary agent while trying to sell a real estate book.   

    Eddie mentioned, “There’s a bullet list of credentials. . . says this guy is a private investigator located in Baton Rouge.  Says he taught a continuation education course on parapsychology at LSU.”

    Roy said, “So, what?”

    Eddie said, “Maybe I’ll take a trip to Baton Rouge and talk to him. There’s a number here I could call and make an appointment with him.”

    Jimmy brought the car to a screeching halt, pulling over on the shoulder of the road and then looked back at him. “Bro, what is this sudden interest in this parapsychology stuff?  We’re in the football season.  Don’t you think you need to focus your energies on making the varsity and stop screwing around inside your head?”

    Eddie calmed him, “Yeah, I’m doing that.  But everybody’s got hobbies, man.  This stuff is super cool.  Would you drive me down to Baton Rouge if I could get to see this guy?”

    Jimmy said “Only if we’re going to an LSU home football game. I don’t have the gas to be wasting on no boondoggle to Baton Rouge.”

    Roy looked on with confused curiosity. “Touche, bro. I don’t get this sudden interest.”

   Eddie felt Jimmy was now pressing him for answers, so he decided to change the subject.  “Look, I’ve got a good reason to look this guy up and get some information, but I can’t tell you about it right now.  Dudes, trust me.  There’s a reason and I’ll tell you in time.  I just really need to contact this Chester Tonally guy.”

    Jimmy and Roy looked at each other and took deep sighs.  Then as they pulled into the parking lot of Fatboy and Skinny’s, Jimmy turned back to Eddie and said, “Look, bro, I supported you with your wild ideas in the past, but this one takes the cake.  You need to come clean on what this is all about, especially if it’s something dangerous.”

    Eddie scoffed and said, “When I’m ready, you’ll know all about it!”

​

CHAPTER 3      

​

​

Eddie remembered first seeing Tonally on a paid television ad when John had taken Eddie with him on a visit to one of John’s shrimping friends in Baton Rouge. The infomercial was announcing the opening of the Tonally Agency, providing services in outpatient psychology and psychokinesis/poltergeist research.  Eddie didn’t think much of it at the time, but for some reason, the memory of that infomercial popped into his mind, which led him to do an internet search. 

    As he sat and contemplated calling the agency, he became discouraged by the thought. He doubted whether the agency would take a seventeen-year-old seriously without adult confirmation. 

    After sitting under the retractable awnings and enjoying a relaxing time at Fatboy and Skinny’s, Eddie advantaged Jimmy and Roy talking to each other and eased off the bench without them noticing and quickly jaunted behind the building, pulled out his cell phone, accessed The Tonally Agency webpage and jotted down Tonally’s business phone number from the site.   He came back to the group moments later but didn’t mention anything to Jimmy or Roy about his call.

    They spent another half hour at Fatboy and Skinny’s before deciding to leave. Jimmy drove to the mansion to drop Eddie off. When they arrived, Eddie noticed that Nellie’s car was in the separate garage, which was open.

    Eddie panicked internally.  He thought to himself, Grandma never leaves the garage open!  She’s always terrified that a snake might slither inside.  So, Eddie asked Jimmy to pull around the side of the garage so he could look and see if she was working in the garden.  Simultaneously, as he leaped out of the back seat, he speed-dialed her cell phone but after two chimes, it went to voice mail.

    He surveyed the garden and backyard, but she wasn’t there.  He glanced around, out towards the botanical garden and back wood line.  He didn’t see her, so he ran to the front of the garden and peered around in all directions.  She was not present outside.   

    Now his feeling of panic ratcheted up a notch. The worst-case scenario entered his mind.  Is it possible that someone took her?  he asked himself.

    Lately, there had been several breaks-in throughout the parish and various crimes against the elderly throughout the state of Louisiana.  

    He stopped walking and quickly speed dialed her cell number again.

    Again, no answer.

    His heart nearly jumped out of his chest. Negative thoughts rushed into his mind.  He murmured aloud. I can’t lose her, too.

    “Calm down, bro!” Roy interluded as he overheard him.  “I know she’s all right. She might just not hear you or have her phone with her inside.”

    As Eddie dashed towards the garage, several scenarios flashed through his mind, the last being that she’d heard noises in the attic from outside, parked the car in the garage and made her way upstairs to the attic.  But why would she not answer her phone? He asked himself.   He still had fears that Pepe could’ve returned to Earth to harm her.  While crossing the hedges on the front lawn, one of the buttons on his crew shorts became caught on a bush and detached.  But he didn’t hear or feel it.  He was laser focused on saving her from harm, only if he could make it in time.  It seemed a negative stretch, given the benign circumstances but not for a teenager who’d just recently lost his grandfather under strange circumstances.

    As Eddie reached the garage door, he eased past the passenger side and glanced into the front seat.  He didn’t see her phone.  Then, he turned back and noticed Jimmy and Roy had exited the car and were quickly making their way through the garage behind him   Eddie shouted, “Hey guys, don’t come in here!  Hang at the car.  I’ll be back!

    Jimmy and Roy froze in their tracks, surmising that if Eddie found his grandmother collapsed on the floor somewhere in the house, he’d wanted that initial moment to be private. 

   As Eddie rushed through the living room, sprinted through the dining room and into the kitchen.  There was no sign of her.  He shouted her name, but no response. So, he reversed his steps and headed toward her bedroom, all the while trying to mentally fight the demons that were having him in a state of panic.  

    As he re-entered the living room, suddenly he heard that static noise again, in the attic.  He instantly re-routed away from her bedroom to bolt up the staircase, skipping alternating steps.  He quickly surmised it was now an appropriate time to tell… or at least warn Nellie about the existence of a ghostly inhabitants in the mansion.

    He halted at the end of the hallway near the pull-down attic ladder and punched ‘4’ on his speed dial list, which was her cell number.  This time, it instantly went to her voice mail rather than the normal three chimes.  

    With this strange development, he instantly became light-headed as his nerves began to unravel.  The worst-case scenario entered his mind . . . that the ghost of Pepe had already taken Nellie away.  As he sensed something was wrong, he quickly clicked off the dialing.  He knew he needed to confront the ghost about Nellie’s whereabouts.

    Then, suddenly he heard the car horn blaring from the outside.  He figured Eddie and Roy were becoming impatient and would enter the house to check on his whereabouts.  He had to make this quick.   So, he jerked down the ladder, rushed up the steps and entered the attic.   Suddenly, there was no static noise, and the room was dark although the overcast sky should’ve allowed some sunlight to enter.

    As he eased cautiously over to the mirror and glanced at it, he saw nothing but his reflection.

    “Grandpa!” he shouted.  “Where are you?  I need to talk to you now!” he further demanded.  There was no reaction, nothing but silence.  He shouted her name again and reached over and shook the mirror. It almost tumbled over but he braced it.  “Dammit, where are you?” he shouted, impatient and angrily.

    Then, he heard the horn blare again.  He couldn’t see the front of the house from the small side window, which was the only window in the attic.  So, he couldn’t wave to them and knew he needed to make it down the stairway quickly in case they wandered upstairs and saw the attic entrance open.

    Frustratingly, he rushed back down the stairway, pushed the attic ladder shut.  He hurried through the house, checked Nellie's bedroom, and quickly looked for her cell phone on the bed, mirror, or nightstand.   He didn’t see it.  Now, he became more nervous but sucked in two deep breaths to calm his nerves, knowing he needed to compose himself before Jimmy and Roy saw him.  He then rushed out of the house.

    He reached their car, and said to them, “Hey dudes. I know you gotta go, so I’ll see you tomorrow.”

    Jimmy and Roy stared at each other; both instantly concerned about their friend’s safety.

     Roy said to Eddie, “Hey, it may not be safe for you to stay in that big house by yourself.   If something messed up happened, they could come back for you.” Roy didn’t want to mention by words his suspicion of an abduction, but the possibility was obvious to each of them.

    Jimmy then said to Eddie, “Why don’t you come over to my crib and try to reach your grandmother.  If she makes it back home, then I’ll drop you back off.  If not, for your safety, you spend time together at my place tonight.”

   Eddie thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement.  “Just let me check the house and ensure all the door are locked.”

 

 

​