Spirit Swamp

Lisa Mulligan glanced at the chipped, green paint on Spirit Swamp’s run-down feed and hardware store, then back down at the yellow piece of paper she held in her hand.

This is it? She bit her lip. A chill crawled along her skin, as the windows seemed to blink with sinister eyes. All of them watched her. The feeling subsided inch by inch as the late evening sun glided out from behind a cloud and slid across the skin on her bare arms adding warmth. After a few more seconds, she shrugged and entered the building.

As soon as she stepped across the threshold, all conversation stopped. The smell of oil and milled wood permeated the room. Smoothing a damp palm down her jeans, she cleared her throat, and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “I was told someone here could take me to see Luna Moore.”

Nobody moved.

Several sets of eyes stared back at her.

Lisa could have sworn she’d heard a rat as it scurried around on the floor, or in the walls.

From somewhere in the back a man asked, “What in tarnation you wanna visit Luna for?”

Lisa swallowed hard. Not a very friendly town, she thought. She licked her lips and studied the piece of paper again. “I was told that someone here would take me to her,” she repeated.

The man snorted. “Another one of those women? Ain’t you got nothin’ better to do?”

The buzz of conversation resumed amongst the handful of men scattered around the metal shelves laden with tools, feed, oil, and various parts for small engines.

Lisa raised her voice, “Luna…she told me I could get help here.”

The feed-store fell quiet again, like an animal that had taken its last breath.

Another man replaced a can of paint on the shelf and gazed at Lisa. A red flannel shirt was tucked into faded blue jeans. Scuffed work-boots clunked across the floor as he walked toward her. “Luna told you that?”

Lisa’s eyes darted from one person to the next. What is wrong with these people? Why did they look at her like she’d called up the devil? Her attention returned to the man in front of her. When his deep, brown eyes met hers, her heart jumped, sending a pleasant jolt throughout her body. Instead of suspicion she saw kindness and trust in his eyes…and pity. Why would he pity her? Maybe he knew why she had to see Luna, but that was impossible. And she wasn’t about to let him know she was down to her last pot of beans. If she didn’t get to see Luna, she had no idea what she would do.

Lisa lifted her chin a notch. “Yes, she did.”

Doubt colored his expression. “Do you have the proof?”

“Of course.” She fished in the pocket of her jeans until she found the beaded necklace with a snake’s tooth attached to it. She handed it to him.

He gave it a quick look, then handed it back to her. “I no longer take people to see Luna. No one does.”

Stunned, Lisa stared at him a few seconds before finding her voice. “Why not?”

“I have my reasons, which are none of your business. I suggest you go home and do things the normal way like ever other desperate woman in the world.”

He took it and placed it around his neck. “Okay, let’s go.”

The air whooshed from her lungs. “Now?”

The man kept walking as he answered her. “Yes.”

Lisa stood frozen to the spot until he disappeared out the door. After a few seconds, she mentally unglued her shoes from the scratched and dirty hardwood floor and started after him.

A voice from the back of the store stopped her. “If the howls and the cackles from the bowels of that swamp don’t sceer ya to death, then the snakes’ll git ya fer sure.”

A shudder shook Lisa’s body from head to toe. She’d been told that rumors of what Luna had done would keep any sane person out of that swamp. And it had. Some had tried to reach her, but few had managed to return, and those who did never made another trip back in.

“They’re as thick as sausages hangin’ on a smoke-house wall,” the same man taunted her with a line from an old Jim Stafford song.

The man who she was supposed to follow stuck his head back in the doorway. “Jimmy, shut up,” he said, and motioned for Lisa to come on.

She hurried after him. “Wait a minute. Are you supposed to take me? I don’t even know your name.”

“Luca Dewitt.”

Luca? What a strange name, she thought. She recovered her manners and stuck out her hand. “Lisa Mulligan.” After he shook her hand and withdrew his, she felt an odd sense of loss.

“I need to stop by my house and call Luna. It won’t take a minute,” he said as he unlocked the door of his older-model pick-up truck.

Luna has telephone service that far out in the swamp?

The last of the sun disappeared behind the mountain. “We’re going at night?” she called from her car where she grabbed her backpack.

“Last night of the full-moon. We have to go now, or you’ll have to wait another month.”

She checked to make sure she had plenty of paper, sharp pencils, and a mini recorder. Snagging her camera, she wasted no time as she climbed into his truck. She’d take her chances with the snakes—and perhaps this man—in the swamp at night to get to Luna. Her stomach growled low, reminding her of why she had to go. She just hoped snakes were the least of her problems out there.

“No cameras.”

“You’re kidding me.” Surely, he wasn’t serious.

He tossed her a slight frown. “Luna doesn’t like them. Besides, this isn’t a tourist attraction.”

Lisa let out an exasperated sigh. A picture or two could make all the difference in the world. Maybe she could sneak it in? One look at Luca, and she thought better of it.

After they were on the road, he glanced her way. “How old are you?”

“Twenty-five.”

“No women that young have been desperate enough to seek Luna’s help.”

“You mean there have been others before me?” Her heart sank. That increased the odds she’d be turned away. Oh, she hoped not! This was her big chance. So, what if she was only twenty-five? It didn’t mean she was any less capable than those other women who had sought Luna in the past.

“Lots of others.”

Lisa frowned. She wondered if Luca had escorted the other women back to Luna’s cabin deep in the swamp. Would he continue to escort women out in the swamp once he’d found that special someone to make his life complete? She was surprised to feel a bit of jealousy nibble at her stomach. Totally ridiculous! It was hunger. That was it, she thought. She hadn’t eaten anything all day.

Luca pulled into the driveway of a white, three-story house with balconies on each level, and a cylinder-shaped structure on one side. The windows were dark and empty, but she felt eyes on her. Did every place in Spirit Swamp have eyes?

“This is where you live?” she asked.

He slid out from behind the wheel, shut the door, and answered her through the open window. “Yes.”

“Alone?”

“Yes.”

She almost asked him if he was sure, but bit down on her tongue instead. He already thought she was odd, no sense in giving him another reason. Not that she cared what he thought of her. Or did she care? She watched him take the steps up to the porch two at a time, and her heart thumped out a curious rhythm again.

A few minutes later he returned and slid back behind the wheel.

“Is it a long way to Luna’s?” she asked. With the sun gone, the day grew rapidly darker.

“It’s a one-hour walk to her place.”

“Walk?”

“There’s no road. At least not one you could drive on.”

Lisa’s mouth dropped open. It took her a few minutes before she could speak again. “And we’re supposed to walk it at night? Are you crazy?”

Luca shrugged. “It’s what Luna wants.”

She ignored the look on his face that said he thought she was the crazy one. The light had grown dimmer on the short trip to the edge of the boggy land. Bats darted in and out of the moonlight; one came so close to the windshield that Lisa could see its fangs bared, reminding her of an old black and white vampire movie. A shiver snaked through her blood.

“You okay?” Luca asked. “We don’t have to go on. Personally, I don’t see why you need Luna’s help.” His eyes roamed over her face and body, lingering on her lips before dropping to her blouse where the top three buttons were undone.

The look touched her like a soft caress, and she felt heat flood her cheeks. It didn’t help that she’d enjoyed it. His warm, brown eyes met hers again. She saw desire mixed with tenderness there, and it made her avert her eyes in shyness. “Let’s go.” She fumbled with the door handle as she tried to get out.

He smiled, took her backpack from her, and slung one strap over his shoulder.

Lisa reached for her camera, but he put a firm hand on her arm.

“No,” he said with a quick shake of his head. He turned and headed into the swamp.

She thought about stuffing the camera under her shirt, but the bulge would be obvious. “Fine,” she mumbled. She’d just have to do the best she could without pictures. She felt eyes on her for the third time that day and hesitated a second or two before she followed Luca. Just swamp creatures, she reassured herself.

“Whatever you do, don’t get lost,” he warned her.

“How on earth am I supposed to get lost if I follow you?”

“It happens.”

Lisa swallowed hard. “You mean you’ve brought someone out here, and they didn’t come back?”

“Not me.”

Lisa expelled the breath she’d been holding. That made her feel better.

“Don’t talk to strangers out here, either.”

He had to go and ruin it. “People live out here?”

“No.”

“But you…”

“I know what I said. Listen to me and you’ll be okay.”

Lisa stepped too high along the shadowy ground and stumbled forward.

Luca grabbed her arm before she hit the damp ground. “Don’t fall down. You might not ever get up again.”

“If you’re trying to frighten me into going back, you can forget it. I didn’t come all of this way for nothing.” She yanked her arm from his gentle grip.

“Luna told me to get you there alive. Falling into a black hole that will suck you under won’t serve that purpose.”

Ritual sacrifices flitted through Lisa’s mind. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. She only knew Luna through a handful of letters they’d exchanged over the past six months. What if the talk was true? It was rumored that once Luna had cooked up a vat of black, goopy brew to save a nearby town from a sickness. The talk was that she’d used a stranger’s blood to seal the nasty plague back into the ground from whence it came. Around that time a lawyer passed through town to see Luna and was never seen again.

Luca touched her hand. “You’re safe with me.”

Lisa offered him a small smile. Funny thing was she believed that he would keep her safe. As for Luna, well, she hadn’t sounded like a crazy old witch in her letters.

“We better get a move on if we’re gonna make it before supper time.”

“Supper time?”

“Yeah, Luna is a great cook.”

“I hope she didn’t cook alligator stew. I think I’m allergic to anything that crawls around in the swamp.” She wasn’t that hungry. Not yet anyway.

He laughed. “As long as you don’t ask what it is, it’ll taste good.”

“If it tastes like chicken, don’t tell me it’s not.”

Luca chuckled and smoothed a strand of hair out of her eyes. “I hope whoever he is knows how lucky he is.” He dropped his hand and started back through the trees.

He? What the heck is he talking about? Realizing she still stood in the same spot, with Luca several yards away, she ran to catch up with him.

They walked for a long while in silence. The only sound was the twigs that snapped under their feet, the occasional hoot of an owl in the distance, and night creatures that rustled in the trees above them. Snakes? Lord, she hoped not!

The moon didn’t afford much light through the thick overgrowth so when the evening grew darker, Luca switched on a flashlight he’d taken from the glove compartment in his truck. The sudden brightness startled several bats that had just started their nocturnal hunt.

Lisa covered her head as they swarmed, wings flapping and fluttering around her hair and brushing her arms. They screeched, hurting her ears with the harsh sound. After a few moments they vanished like they’d never been there at all.

“I thought bats liked caves?” She panted as she searched the trees for more of them.

Luca played his beam above them. The gnarled trees grew thick and bent over each other, forming a black ceiling above their heads. “Close enough.”

Lisa felt her chest tighten as though she was trapped in a confined place. She gulped in huge mouthfuls of air.

“You okay?”

All she could manage was a slight nod.

“We don’t have far to go.”

When they started walking again, she slipped her hand into his. It made her feel safe. Of all the men in that feed store, she was glad he was the one who had been chosen to lead her through the swamp.

Suddenly, Luca stopped and put a finger to his lips. “Don’t say a word and don’t move.”

Lisa nodded and tightened her hold on his hand.

A few moments later an apparition in white glided in and out of the trees. Her dress glowed around the edges with a silver tint. Lifeless black eyes stared straight ahead. She swayed with each step as if she moved to the sound of silent music.

A chill traveled from Lisa’s toes to the top of her head. She wanted to move closer to Luca, but didn’t dare breathe, let alone budge from her position. A mixture of fright and fascination churned in her stomach. The apparition would make one heck of a story.

The woman’s head swung their way. A small smile curved her lips. Her gaze lingered on Lisa. “Ah, Luca, Luna will be proud,” she said. Her voice sounded like a legion of devils speaking at once. With one last smile, she turned and glided into the trees.

Lisa scrambled for the camera on her shoulder but found only her sleeve instead. “No! Darn it!” She had forgotten it was still in the truck. She grabbed a notebook and pencil and took a step in the direction the woman had gone.

Luca snagged her around the waist and hauled her back against his body. “Whoa now! I don’t think you want to follow the ghost of Laura Bell. It’s said that if she spied you along her path, she’d lead you to your death.” His strong arm kept a firm grip on her.

“But I want to talk to her,” Lisa protested, and struggled half-heartedly against his arm. The warmth and solid feel of his body against her back caused her pulse to thump hard against her chest. She was sure he could feel it flip-flop underneath her ribs where his hand warmed her skin through the thin material of her shirt.

“You can talk to her later.” His breath fanned her ear as he spoke, sending another thrill coursing through her body. “The rumors about her are probably false, too. If you want, I’ll bring you back another time. Right now, Luna waits.” He released her and started walking again.

“How often do you travel through here?”

“At least once a week, but I use an ATV. It’s quicker.”

“Why didn’t we use one tonight?”

“Luna said not to.”

“I’ve lost my mind,” she mumbled.

“No, you haven’t. Everybody wants what you seek, but few have the guts to go after it.” He paused and waited for her to catch up.

“Well, let’s go get what I seek.”

“None of the others went past this point.” A hint of admiration slipped out with his words. “Are you sure you want to go on?”

“I’m not like the others,” she said and laced her fingers with his once again. “Let’s go.”

Within ten minutes they reached Luna’s cabin. It sat in the middle of a murky swamp. The dirty, greenish-black water surrounded it on all sides.

Luca curled his fingers around Lisa’s waist, and lifted her into a small, wooden boat tied to a tree. A shock of pleasure zapped her where his hands had touched. One finger grazed her breast, and she sucked in a sharp breath. This man was all together too attractive, and she didn’t need that kind of distraction right now. Her stomach rumbled again, reminding her of the reasons why. If she had to eat one more bowl of beans, she’d scream her head off. Focus! she berated herself.

He rowed them across the water with firm, easy strokes. Once something thumped underneath the boat. Something big. Lisa’s heart jumped into her throat as thoughts of alligators and swamp monsters rushed through her mind. She clutched the sides of the boat with a death-like grip.

“Keep your hands inside the boat,” Luca warned.

Lisa snatched her hands back to her side and slid as close to the middle of the boat as she could get. What crazy person lived out here? A witch, whispered the water as it lapped against the boat.

Instead of the stooped, white-haired lady Lisa had expected, a lithe, black-haired woman with eyes of pure green awaited them on the high dock that surrounded her house. Once they climbed the steps to reach her, she spoke. “Ah, Luca, she is lovely indeed.” She took Lisa’s face in her hands and scrutinized it for what seemed like ages. “I knew you were the one I’ve searched the world over for when I read your first letter.”

“I hope I live up to your expectations.” Lisa felt overwhelmed with a sudden case of doubts. Luna’s story was the most sought after in the world. She was a swamp witch that used swamp magic. Mystery and intrigue surrounded her. What if she’d gotten this far only to screw it up?

“I can tell by the moony expression in my nephew’s eyes that you’ll far surpass my expectations. He’s mesmerized every time he looks your way.”

Lisa looked from Luna to Luca, then back to Luna. “Luca is your nephew?”

“Yes. I raised him from birth. He’s more like a son.” That explained the strange name. Only a witch would name a child Luca.

Realization dawned in Lisa’s mind. “I wasn’t brought here to interview you, was I?” Her stomach sank. If she came back without a great story, her boss would kick her so far out of the publishing world that she’d never find her way back again. Better that she got lost in Spirit Swamp.

Luca’ eyes lit up in the glow of the lanterns that hung nearby. “You mean you didn’t come here for a love spell?”

“Good heaven’s, no!” Lisa felt confused and dejected. All this way for nothing.

“Come in, come in! The stew is almost done.” Luna crossed the threshold of her home and paused at the door.

Luca caught Lisa’s arm before she followed his aunt. “You braved the swamp just to interview my aunt?”

“I need the story or I’m gonna lose my job.” She smiled without humor. “Luna doesn’t appear to live up to her legend. That doesn’t make for much of a story.”

“Oh, my dear, don’t let appearances fool you. I may not have a long nose with warts, but I can tell you stories about this swamp that’ll give you night chills for years to come.” Luna winked. “And I’ll tell you all, starting with the ghost of Laura Bell, if you promise to marry my nephew. Once women find out about me, they drop him like a hot coal fresh from a fire.”

“Luna!” Luca protested.

Luna bent and whispered next to Lisa’s ear. “I have a feeling you’re made of stronger stuff than that.” She slipped into the house and down a hallway out of sight.

“Don’t pay any attention to my aunt. Since no one makes it far enough for her to cast a love spell, she likes to dabble with my love life.” He paused. “Can’t say I mind her attempt at match-making this time.”

Lisa’s heart raced at his words. Flustered, she plunged into a question. “Is she really a witch like they say?”

“Luna…is different. She’s a medicine woman of sorts, and sometimes her cures are miraculous. It scares people, and rumors get started. Especially when people disappear out here. But this is a swamp. You go in alone; you might as well kiss your loved ones good-bye before you leave.”

“What about those other women who sought her?”

“They wanted a love potion, but the catch was that they had to come and get it in person. Luna figured if it were important enough, they wouldn’t let the swamp stop them. None of them ever made it this far, besides you, but then again you weren’t seeking love, where you?”

She smiled and shook her head. “Something tells me I won’t need a spell to find love.”

“Is that so?” Luca grinned.

Her heart thumped and swelled in happiness. Things had worked out better than she thought. Not only would she get more than one good story, but she’d also get a chance to get to know Luca. When she crossed the threshold, the smell of chicken wafted on the air from somewhere inside. At least, she hoped it was chicken…