Prologue: One Foot in the Grave

Adriana grins at Samantha's Ghostbuster's inquiry. "There are many kind of spirits, ghost, or the absent as we often call them. Exorcism is the extreme and works more on dark things that were never a living human to bgin. There are rituals, if need be, but sometime it need a personal touch to help the deceased to move on. Every situation different." She conveys to the curious teen, who is not so very much younger than herself.

Leaning in to whisper in a quieter voice she adds, "Being in Krewe can be like Ghostbusters, but cases usually not so funny."

Grinning again at the inquisitiveness of the young woman, Adriana nods. "Something like that. Mardi Gras Krewes are secret societies forged by common bond and together manifest their expression of the collective in fetes, parades, and other events. Ours like that too, except we focus on our mutual experiences with the spirit world, in its many forms, and express it in trying help others on both sides of the veil."

Jay was a bit impressed when Jeromé decided to pitch in with their digging efforts. Clapping the stuffy lawyer on the arm in support of the man's decision, he sat the lantern down underneath the house to better see what he was doing and put shovel to ground. The soft, spongy soil of the river delta was a breeze to plow through as opposed to the hard, red sandstone soil of Oklahoma and Jay made short work of excavating underneath the house. Jay dug underneath the house to clear a path along the piers towards the trapdoor and let the two older men move the soil he turned out onto the lawn to avoid blocking the path he was making.
Jay kind of lost himself in the task, singing unconsciously as he went. When he'd moved in with his Grandfather after his mother died, the Old Man had him digging everywhere around the old ranch. At the time, Jay thought it was just BS busywork the Old Man didn't want to do but with a bit of reflection Jay realized it was more than that. It was a way to keep the body busy, work the anger and other conflicting emotions out of his head and heart, while leaving his mind to work things out without the distraction of those negative emotions. It also helped him sleep like a log.

The voice from the Twilight cut his reverie and he noticed the other two men had stopped clearing his dig tailings. Clambering out from underneath the house, he heard the spectral warning again from the shade on the lawn. Well, Hello there... Jay said to the shade, mimicking General Kenobi. He planted the shovel in the ground next to Jeromé's and wiped the dirt streaked sweat from his forehead before exchanging glances with Derek. Must be on the right track if we're attracting warnings... Jay nodded to the shade as it nervously clutched its old fashioned hat, You here to warn us or on Her behalf?

"Mmmmm. That smells great already," Max said to Mrs.Guillory when she started the coffee brewing. He had followed her back to the kitchen and was leaning against the counter a few feet away, amazed at how quickly Adriana seemed to be developing a rapport with Samantha.

"Your daughter is a brave girl," he remarked quietly so as not to be overheard. "I wasn't much older than she is when I started guiding tours to various haunted sites in the Quarter, but that was all fun and games. I didn't really believe it at the time, and for the first fifteen years, I never saw a single ghost. Then, one day, I finally did, and it changed my life forever. It's remarkable that she is dealing with this as well as she is."

He remembered meeting the Forgotten and taking the bargain, and how shocked he'd been when they got back to the city and he realized that there were ghosts, literally, everywhere. That had been more than a decade ago, and although he and his Geist had grown accustomed to one another, he didn't feel as if they had made any progress toward understanding each other.

He looked across the room at The Forgotten, who was standing by the window and looking intently out toward where Jay and Derek were digging; a little too intently, Max wondered? No one outside was making a fuss, though. All he could hear was a whole lot of digging. So, he shrugged it off as nothing. If there was one thing that he had learned over the years it was that he couldn't predict the sorts of things that his Geist might be drawn to.

Adriana and Max

Claudine smiles and watches Samantha as she converses with Adriana. "My daughter has always been quick to adapt to strange situations. I suppose when you’ve been seeing things since a young age, ‘strange’ becomes a new normal for you." Claudine’s expression suddenly shifts. She drops her gaze toward the floor for a moment. Then looks at Max with a mixture of sadness and guilt. "For a long time, I… we didn’t believe she was seeing anything. We thought that it was mental illness. Depression or early onset Schizophrenia. We took her to doctors and put her on medications. But after what we’ve experienced here, I know now that she was never sick. Just perceptive."

As Claudine finishes speaking, you both notice your geists drawn to something outside. At this point, you no longer hear the sounds of shoveling. The Forgotten is staring out a kitchen window, and the heads of the Impure are gazing in that same direction. You can hear muffled conversation coming from the side of the house. Some of the voices are recognizable, but one isn’t.

Jay leaned on his shovel, the humidity laden air refusing to carry away the sweat of his labors, as he regarded the warning. You've risked a bit coming to warn us, yeah? This Red Lady, she's dangerous to the living and the dead? What's your name and why risk warning us? Is there a connection between you and this house? He wiped the sweat from his forehead again before attempting to explain to Jeromé, Someone had come to warn us if we keep digging the entity Samantha calls Ruby might try to harm us or your family.. Jay looked the older attorney in the eyes, the deadly earnestness and honesty evident on his face, I won't lie to you, Mr. Guillory. This warning is real and shouldn't be taken lightly. We said we'd help but that help won't come without some risks. Just know we're doing everything we can to keep you and your family safe.

Max cocked his head to the side and listened for a moment. He could have sworn that he had heard another voice outside beside those of Mr. Guilory, Jay, and Derek. His silence paid off a moment later when he heard the voice again. It was muffled and indecipherable; however, it clearly didn't belong to any of the three who had gone outside to check underneath the house.

"Excuse me a moment, ladies," he said as he started for the door. When Max stepped outside, The Forgotten fell into step behind him lending his Geistly stamp of approval to the action. It took a moment for him to realize that the unfamiliar voice belonged to a ghost, so fully had he materialized. Ultimately, it was the slightly confused look that Mr. Guillory wore that gave it away.

Knowing how cautious ghosts tended to be Max slowed his pace as he approached. His eyes scanned the darkness that was being held at bay by Jay's lantern for signs of any other visitors, ghostly or otherwise.

When asked his name, the ghost seems surprised. At the question, he relaxes slightly.

"My name is... William. William Fields Sr." The dead man appears to get emotional for a few seconds. He looks away and clears his throat before continuing to speak. "It has been a long while since anyone asked me my name. It has been a long while since anyone's seen me other than the dead."

He turns his attention to Jay. "I got no connection to this house. I used to walk the grounds of the cemetery that I was buried at. Me and lots of others. A whole damned mess of us... just wanderin' around our grave sites. Trapped. Not sure how long. Time loses its meanin' after a while. The decades bleed together..." William's voice peters off. He seems distracted for a moment. Then continues. "Then came that hurricane... like the winds o' Hell. Worse thing I ever did see. The entire cemetery got flooded. Bodies washed away. I saw people... dead people... and they was screamin' like I've never heard the dead scream. Sucked into tha Place Below...."

William zones out again. He's staring off into space, and you can tell it's a struggle for him to maintain focus. As Sin-Eaters, you've all witnessed this before. He's Essence deprived. Ghosts suffering Essence malnourishment often show symptoms not unlike dementia as their mental faculties erode away. It could happen from Essence Bleed due to separation from an Anchor, or from spending too much Essence on Numina. Or the Essence could have been robbed from him.

"Where was I?" He thinks again. "Oh right... so I'm at the cemetery, and next thing that I know, I'm here. Same for the others. We been stuck here ever since." William looks at the hole that you've all been digging beneath the house. "The Red Lady has eyes for the young white girl who lives here. She's developed a taste for her. You get in her way... it won't be pretty. She don't care much for Eaters o' Sin."

William's expression goes blank again, and his eyes cloud over. Suddenly he puts his hat back on and smiles at all of you. His previous state of anxiety has completely vanished. He looks around as though unsure of where he is. Then he nods to Jay and Derek while appearing oblivious to the geists. "Apologies. I need to start makin' my way to church. Otherwise I'll miss Sunday mass. You folks seen my wife and son? I supposed to be meetin' them."

Max approaches from the backyard and stands on the other side of the ghost. William turns and looks over his shoulder at Max. His smile widens, and he walks over to the Sin-Eater. He pats Max on the shoulder, and you can hear the physical contact. Although the ghost isn't Materialized, Sin-Eaters are always solid to the dead.

"There you are! We need to get goin' if we don't want to be late," he says to Max. Then glances around. "Where's your mother, Will? She still cookin'? That woman and her étouffée. Always needs to get it just right..." He grins and watches Max expectantly for an answer.

Is there a cemetery and church near here? Jay asked Jeromé, partly to distract him from what was going on and partly to answer questions brought up by something the shade of Mr. Fields had said. There may be some remains washed under your house from a nearby cemetery by Hurricane Katrina. That didn't satisfy Jay given that the history of the house had it leaking Plasm before Katrina but it was plausible enough excuse for Mr. Guillory at the moment.
An idea struck him and he abandoned his shovel, still upright in the ground, as he retrieved his smouldering mug of tobacco and sage from under the house. Blowing into it and getting it flare with smoke, Jay fished his pocket knife from his mud-caked pocket and split his palm with the keen edge. He let the blood drip into the blazing mixture of herbs and forced his Plasm into the wreathing smoke alongside the blood. The heady mixture curled from the mug as it sizzled with each heavy drop, fighting the night breeze as it sought out the shade of William Fields and wrap around his spectral figure.

"She said to go on ahead. She'll catch up with us," Max replied sliding easily into the game.

There's no reason to get the guy all worked up, he figured. Besides, if you pay attention you just might learn something.

Adriana chooses to stay in the kitchen with two-thirds of their clients and provide a last line of defense for Samantha should that awful red woman show up.