Page 58 of Sweaty Nights & Gator Bites

Phi was already waiting when we pulled up. The Uber she'd taken from the University passed us. She had her laptop bag slung over one shoulder and her head tilted slightly to the side. She looked like a bird listening to a distant song.Her eyes had that unfocused, faraway look she got when she was about to deliver a prophecy. I hoped she was only feeling out the threads of energy around her. They were unmistakable when we got out of the vehicle. She turned to us and it was then that I could see her mind mapping out the disturbances in the air. She was no doubt cataloguing every ripple and fluctuation for later analysis.

"Can you take me back to the University later?" she asked as she joined us. "I figured getting a ride would be easier than parking here. Plus, I've got office hours later."

"Smart move," I agreed. "You never know in this neighborhood. Remember when Dani's car got 'relocated' by the authorities?"

"That wasn't funny," Dani grumbled. "It cost me over two hundred bucks to get it out of impound.."

Dea arrived moments later. She was grumbling about parking. She'd had to circle the block twice before finding a spot. "I wasn't sure if I would have time to park in the pack lot and walk over. It sounded urgent."

I handed her the bag with her stuff in it. "I brought the heavy-duty cleansing stuff, just in case."

"Good thinking. The Quarter's been weird lately," Dea said, frowning. As our resident spirit whisperer, she would know. "Too many ghosts are getting rowdy. There's been far too much ghost activity lately. Something is waking them up."

"Could it be residual energy from that magical storm?" Phi asked. "Maybe they’re less powerful than LaLaurie, and it’s taking more time."

"Don't even say that name," Kota shuddered. "I still can't walk past that place without getting the creeps."

“It’s the storm, but not because of any residual energy. We know it unearthed a multitude of things before we stoppedBaron Samedi. I’m betting it’s something new,” I added as we entered the store.

Conversation stopped the moment we stepped under the weathered wooden sign of Solid Solutions. Its looked the same as always with the name was spelled out in elaborate Celtic script with a silver pentagram cleverly worked into the 'o'. Yet, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. The air was charged, like right before a lightning strike.

The shop itself should have been welcoming. Sunlight streamed through crystal-hung windows and cast rainbow prisms across walls that were lined with floor-to-ceiling shelves of herbs in glass apothecary jars. Brass cauldrons of varying sizes were nestled among collections of hand-dipped candles and tumbled stones. A curved glass display case housed everything from intricately carved athames to vintage tarot decks, while crystal balls of all sizes caught and magnified the light from ornate brass sconces.

But today, all that carefully curated mystical ambiance felt wrong. It was like a horror movie set dressed up in new-age trappings. The atmosphere pulsed with unsettling energy, which made even the tiniest silver bell above the door chime discordantly. Hollie practically teleported to us from behind the counter. Her face was drained of all color.

"Thank you for coming so quickly," she gushed as she wrung her hands. "I didn't know who else to call. The mundies are starting to notice something's wrong."

"There is always the new hotline number. But we're also here to help," I assured her as I reached out to give her hand a squeeze. "Just stay calm and tell us exactly what happened. When did it start?"

"This morning, everything was fine. I opened the store and handled my first customers like normal. Then, around noon, things started moving. It was little things at first. A crystal rolled off a shelf, and a book fell over. I thoughtmaybe it was just the old building settling or something. But then?—"

Right on cue, the lights started flickering like we were in a budget horror flick. Objects rattled on their shelves, and those creepy whispers Hollie mentioned? Yeah, they were real. And getting louder. The unseen forces seemed to kick into overdrive at our presence. I swear they were putting on a show just for us.

"Show-offs," I muttered. “Are there ghosts, Dea?”

Dea's hands started glowing as she turned in a slow circle. Her energy pulsed outward in waves. "This isn't a ghost," she announced with a frown after a few seconds. "Something else is playing games here. The energy signature is not connected to any spirits."

I nodded as I felt the same unease crawl up my spine. "That means we need to dig deeper. Hollie, has anything unusual happened lately? Did you get new items in the shop? Any strange customers? Or weird dreams?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary," she said, then paused. "Well, there was this old woman last week. She tried to sell me some antique tarot cards. She claimed they were from her grandmother's collection. I didn’t want them. They felt wrong. When I refused them, she got really angry. She started muttering something under her breath."

"Of course, there was a creepy old woman with cursed tarot cards," Kota muttered as she shoved a hand through her hair. "Because that's not a walking horror movie cliché at all. Ten bucks says she cackled while she cursed your shop."

“Sounds about right to me,” Dre agreed. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she tried to pay in Spanish doubloons. Like, actual pre-Civil War coins that came off a sunken pirate ship.”

"Hold your conspiracy theories," Phi interrupted with her hands planted on her hips. Her researcher voice was out infull force. "The energy's been wonky for days. You all felt it. Hell, my coffee mug started doing the cha-cha across my desk this morning."

I couldn't argue with that. The weird vibes had been riding my last nerve all day. It was like someone was dragging their nails down a metaphysical chalkboard. We tore through that shop like a hurricane through the French Quarter. We checked every crystal, herb, and sketchy-looking tchotchke for curse residue. We searched for hex bags, demon signatures, and anything else that might explain why the shop was going full poltergeist.

An hour later, we had exactly jack squat. Well, that's not entirely true. We had a growing list of questions, a collection of mysteriously vibrating crystals, and what looked suspiciously like melted wax on Kota's new boots even though none of the candles had been lit.

"There is something bigger going on," Phi said, already typing furiously on her phone. "My office hours can wait. Something about this isn't sitting right."

Dea checked her watch and sighed. "I'll call Marcus and see if he can cover my shift. He owes me one anyway, and this feels like all hands on deck."

Ten minutes later, Dre, Kota, and Phi were piled into my car. Dea and Dani were in hers and we were all headed back to the plantation. The sun was setting and painting the sky in shades of orange and purple. It would have been beautiful if we weren't all wondering what fresh hell was about to break loose.

Back at the plantation, we regrouped in the ladies' parlor with Cami, our resident historian. Having lived hundreds of years ago and only recently been brought back to life, she had a unique view on things. The room, with its elegant Victorian furniture and modern touches, had become our default war room for supernatural crises. Phi was alreadydeep in research mode. Her fingers were flying over her laptop keyboard.

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