Trust In Me

Chapter Two.

If you wanna play it like a game

Well c'mon, c'mon.

Let's play.

It wasn't so much a helpless feeling as it was a strange one. Lakota knew what she was saying as she spoke to the Shadowman, but it was almost as if…well, not even. It was her forming the words…but they just didn't fit. The inside of the emporium didn't look much different from any other weird shop in New Orleans, but as she followed him inside, she couldn't help but feel like it was extremely different…

"I s'pose it might be polite of me to introduce myself—" The man started, but she interrupted him.

"Dr. Facilier."

"You have a better memory than you give yourself credit for, chere."

"No. Your name is above the entrance."

There was a moment of awkward silence, as if her comment had embarrassed him rather badly. "Well, of course it is." He laughed a bit, shaking his head. "Why don't you have a seat?" One of the chairs at his table pulled out on its own, and he grinned. "I promised you a fortune telling, now, didn't I?"

Lakota supposed if she had good sense, she would have left the place immediately. But there again was that strange, familiar feeling, and instead of leaving, she sat down. The chair was pushed in, and out of the corner of her eye she could have sworn she saw a shadow dart back to Dr. Facilier, but she was probably just imagining it.

In a split second, he was across from her, seizing her hand and turning it palm up, pretending to look at the lines intently. "You know," He started, smirking that devilish smirk. "I ain't got to read your palm to know all about you."

His words unnerved her, but she couldn't find any of her own.

"You have a bad memory. Now, I don't mean the occasional forgotten appointment, either. I mean ya barely remember a week ago. You ain't never been to a doctor for it," Another sinister look. "'Til now. And I'm 'gon tell you exactly why you don't remember much of anything."

She sat up a bit, he had her interest. Maybe this would work out in her favor. Maybe…

"You ain't human."

The words rang like a church bell in her head. Loud and clear, painstakingly clear. They were familiar. She'd heard them before. He was laughing now, and she pulled her hand back from him, standing up.

"Familiar?" He asked. "Of course that's gonna jog your memory. I told you that last night."

"Last night was a dream," She snapped. Dr. Facilier laughed again, a bit more loudly. A bit more sinisterly.

"Was it now?"

"Of course it was!!" She nearly yelled, taking a step back from the table. "MaryAnn wouldn't have—"

Dr. Facilier waved a hand in front of him, and a purple mist created a small scene. The scene that played out was stranger than anything Lakota had ever seen. Her friend was speaking to her on the phone, then when they hung up…MaryAnn was nothing more than a shadow on the wall.

"MaryAnn wouldn't have what?" He repeated, looking up at Lakota as she watched the moving pictures.

"You're psycho. What are you trying to—"

"Do you ever notice your own shadow?"

"Do I what?!"

"Do you ever notice…you own shadow?" He spaced out the words on purpose, eyes following her like a hawk's. He was carefully studying her reaction, like he was waiting on her to realize something.

"I…" Lakota glanced down, and made a face at her discovery. She, indeed, had no shadow. "I don't get it. What…how could I miss something like that?"

"Pretty easily, darlin'. Shadows ain't something you normally worry about, are they? Now…what shoes you're gonna wear and how your hair is gonna look, that's a different story." He said sarcastically, leaning back in his chair a bit.

"Alright, Facilier. If I don't have a shadow, where is—"

In another split second, the wind was knocked out of her, and all she could make out was the Shadowman's laughter…

It felt like forever when she finally came to. She wasn't in her apartment, but the dominant part of Lakota's mind didn't care any longer. She remembered the conversation with Facilier, word for word, and she remembered a whole bunch of other things now, too.

Much more…

"Has it really been almost…two hundred years?"

A whoop of joy was heard. "Aha!! They're gonna be real pleased with me. I'm gonna get that real second chance!!"

"Ugh. Calm yourself." Lakota sat up in the bed she was in, looking around. She appeared to be in a room of some short, perhaps his room above the shop, where he lived. That would make sense. Scoffing, she thought to herself for a moment.

From what she could piece together…yes. She had been a shadow. One of the shadows sent out to retrieve Prince Naveen when Lawrence let him escape. For years, Lakota watched Dr. Facilier's feeble attempts to gather souls with the other spirits, and laughed at him when he failed, every time owing something else to them. But in the bayou that night, when Mama Odie hit them with beams of light, it was a spell that sent a few of the shadows reeling. Three of them had become human, with no real recollection of what they were. Lakota was one of them, and also the last shadow Facilier had been granted to find. The spirits told him if he succeeded, he could have his life back—permanently.

Extending her arm, Lakota was pleased to see she had her shadow back…but why did she still have her human body? Maybe that question would be saved for later, because she couldn't complain. There was much more that could get done this way…"I don't think you played your…aheh…cards right." She purred, grinning and standing, stretching her limbs. "Do you really think the spirits are going to give you what you want? I mean, come on, after everything you screwed up? If I were the hierarchy, I would use you to fix what was messed up and then screw you over like you screwed us over. Pa-lease. You're a pathetic excuse for a witch doctor."

"…I liked you a lot better, missy, when you didn't know what you were." He snapped, standing and walking over to the window in the room, glancing down to the streets. "But they're gonna keep their promise, yes they are. You just wait. Soon as I get that extra soul…and you're gonna help me," He said, turning and pointing at her. Lakota raised a brow, sitting on the edge of his bed and watching him.

"Who says?"

"I say."

"And who are you to say?"

"Just, stop it!" He was frustrated with her. Good. That made her grin. It was her turn to drive him insane.

"Y'know. I have you to thank for reminding me that I am simply a lucky 'friend from the other side'." She mocked, and he made a face.

"Yeah, yeah…"