The witch of New Orleans

ard Street had not rung it

ux made cert

d her family were declared "devil-kin." It was his voice that led the final ser

linched. Ne

he was g

ke the hum of a tuning fork buried in his brain. Doctors foun

oux knew

he pyre-except now it was his own flesh catching fire. And through the blaze

leeding gums. He

ts began t

not stay lit

ltar bled

ide had turned the color of dried blood. Every morning, a new black feath

n, the b

ngle

erous.

very window i

ther priests gathered but dared not touch him. He screamed at them

o one

it too, now-

Femi

d w

-

ora walked into t

e stop

ed, but there was no light. The walls pulsed with hear

, swaying, eyes hollow, hands clutchi

slowly, like a bride com

me to confess

pered. "I've co

cifix-but it broke

tion of ash-bodied figures: women in scorched gowns, children

vic

raised

g again-without w

nd did n

ing should hear. The sound tore flesh from the faces of the s

fell to

s on his face, his chest, his throat. They whisper

began to

t d

rav

by sinew, like a tapest

ulled apart and sewn into th

war

cur

rec

ell st

-not out of grief

k scratched f

-

the mirrors warp

s. Renoux's was not visible-only a bleeding shape, kneeling,

beneath the floorboards. Its

arvest

nod

not ye

hissed in

ng else move

hidden quarters of the bayou,

n Cha

odoo queen o

bound to the earth, was waking. Not by

meant only

erose had bro

and began to chant in the lost tongue of the Tchamba spirits. Her

had t

continued, New Orlea

he way

ny way it

-

House, Isadora

t f

pre

e had n

ne pow

wat

smi

them