The witch of New Orleans

open and tongue missing. The coroner would later write "natural causes" in shakin

en they've seen something they know they shouldn't. A chill bloomed through th

of the full-length mirror in her late mother's dressing room. She had not changed clothes si

r, the mir

nc

n ag

bing outward

at it, as if it had spo

ss finger to the glass

she saw something that did no

d with two mouths. A woman

er from within the refl

spered. "Be patient

ogged over, as though breath

s, the hou

lightly warm to the touch. The walls breathed softly at night, inhaling and exhaling

ily now. Just drops. Eno

s growing

d it-was no longer content with scraps. It wanted more souls. More pai

to feed them to

y. The flame rose black. Smok

called her mother "temptress" a

oned her father's estate c

ood friend who turned her ov

curled i

e whispered. "Let th

er make. It giggled. Not sweetly. Not innocently. Like

rc opened his Bible and found eve

en choking. When they opened his pulpit hours later, he was slumped o

ation. No blood in his l

carved into the wood be

days. The priest who gave

ed it all from

ns

mar

ver unn

-

hunder rolled ac

. The city trembled faintly, as

at no one alive had ever heard before. A lullaby her mother used t

ire cr

shadows behind her c

are ch

did not

m bec

in moss. Skin like bark, eyes like river

o the city. Even the de

she said calmly.

ed closer, tiltin

stand what you

ed it. I c

e branches in winter. "You f

ora s

an about the way she moved. Too smooth. Too certain. The s

it," she said coldly. "Un

then turned to ash before her eyes, bl

sat a

lls, dozens of tiny black spid

ot scream.

reathes had begun

ast was far