Viktor: Part VI
Even though it was the second time he had seen her, he had still never seen anything like her. She looked like an angel even the dark. Viktor had seen no one he found worth noticing but was stunned to see his red headed goddess across the street when he left the Dungeon. He could tell she was drunk from the way she swayed down the street and was compelled to follow her again. He was delighted to see that she turned around and saw him staring, but he moved into a shadow hoping she didn’t really get a good look; she must not be as drunk as she seemed. Something inside Viktor told him it was intentional, but he couldn’t figure out why so he dismissed it.
“At least she somewhat noticed me.” He thought as he quietly continued to follow her. He slipped on to Bourbon Street and followed her from the shadows. Apparently he wasn’t that worth noticing for she didn’t look at him again as him as he followed. He followed her until she got to St. Phillips and turned the corner. He knew it would be foolish to follow her all the way home again. He needed to find her again and begin his long practiced art of remaining unnoticed while he learned all he could about his red haired temptress. He contemplated whether or not she would be able to recognize him again but he decided that it would be unlikely, so he forgot the notion quickly. He wandered back to St. Louis Cemetery which was now his home and fell asleep as the sun rose dreaming of his new love and hoped that she would not end up like the rest.
The next three months had gone by without situation. Viktor has spent every night wandering St. Louis looking for trespassing teenagers and bums to throw out. It was ironic in that Viktor looked a lot like many of the homeless that he has to throw out, minus about twenty to thirty years, it was hard to tell. Most of them were gracious in that once they were caught they would leave without issue, but Viktor began to notice that every night the same ones would be back again. It didn’t bother him much and if it were up to him, he would let them stay. They weren’t hurting anything or anyone and he felt bad that he had a definite place to sleep while they didn’t, but he didn’t want to seem like he wasn’t doing his job so every night he told them to leave and they would. After the first few weeks he was begining to talk to them and learn about their ways. There was one man who he let stay in the cemetery every night he worked. He said he was thirty eight, but looked more like fifty, who told Viktor that his wife just up and left him for another man and left him with the mortgage which he couldn’t pay alone so he was forced into the streets. His name was Cal. Viktor wanted to help him and knew exactly how, since his wife, Lucy, still lived in New Orleans but couldn’t let his ruse be known. Any person, no matter how degenerate, who knew his secret, was a liability and Viktor had no intention of hurting Cal.
Besides his aimless wanderings through the cemetery at night, Viktor spent most of his days sleeping. Miss Launa had decided that Viktor would only work Monday through Thursday since she thought there was no use to run him ragged by having him work every night of the week. ”Young peoples need personal time” she had said. “I oughtta know. I used to be quite a hellion back in my day.” Viktor had laughed to himself thinking about the heavy-set woman in her younger days gallivanting around the quarter, but he didn’t object. His small salary was more than enough to satisfy his needs. He was even able to start saving some which was something he was only able to do once before he got robbed in Colorado. He hardly ever had to pay for food either. Miss Launa kept emphasizing the fact that he looked too thin and would buy him two weeks of food once a month, which actually lasted him about a month since he never ate much to begin with. Something about the idea of being so reliant on food, or any other normal human necessity sickened him. He only paid for food when he went out on the weekends and in fact it was the weekends that were depressing him. He hadn’t seen his red haired goddess since that second night three months ago. He spent every Thursday and Sunday night wandering the quarter looking for her and every Friday and Saturday in his tower looking for someone to make him forget her, no matter how futile it was. Although Cassie had taken to “running” into him everywhere he went, he found excuses to not be around her. He still needed to figure out why he loathed her so much. He had started searching for the red head every night but realized it was damn near impossible to find anyone in the crowds that flocked to the streets on Friday and Saturday so the odds that she might stumble in to the Dungeon were almost equal if not greater than if he wandered looking for her. She had never shown. Cassie continued to show up everywhere. All of a sudden the Dungeon was her favorite bar and no matter when he showed up, she would be there,
One night after she had left, Viktor went to talk to Evey, who worked every weekend and was fast becoming the closest thing to a friend he had ever had. Evey admitted that she hadn’t seen any natural red head in the bar when she worked but she did know the other one.
“Cassie. She’s a pain.” Evey hissed. “Why do you ask? Got a crush do you?”
“Hardly” Viktor replied with a scowl. “Does she always come around this often?”
“Not since you started hanging around. She’d come in every once in a while and every time some drunk would follow her out. She would come back while he never did so I guess she can handle herself. I wonder what she says to them to get them to leave her alone. I could take lessons from her. Why are you so curious about her?”
“She seems to have taken a liking to me. I ran into her on the street and we had drinks. Now she is everywhere.” the disgust was apparent in his tone. He had always been the hunter, not the hunted and it was unnerving to him, uncomfortable. “I don’t know why she keeps trying and its beginning to get on my nerves.”
”She may seem nuts, but she is anything but harmless.” Evey was dead serious about Viktor’s unfortunate situation. “Why don’t you just tell her thanks but no thanks? I’m sure she would get the idea.”
“I already did” Viktor said now distressed that she hadn’t taken the hint. “I told her I was flattered but that I wasn’t interested.”
“Damn. Well good luck with that” Evey could see how annoyed Viktor was with his new admirer and did the only thing she could think of to help. “Well, if she keeps bugging you I could always eighty six her for life. Then she couldn’t come back.”
“A gracious offer, but I don’t think that will be necessary” Viktor replied with a smile. “I’m sure I can find a way to make her get the hint and disappear.”
“Well if that doesn’t work, you always have my offer.” Evey was glad to have someone like Viktor to talk to. Most people were turned away by her ghostly appearance, but not Viktor. He was like the brother she had lost not long ago.
After many painful weeks of waiting, he finally saw her. She was walking down Royal Street.
Viktor couldn’t believe that his patience had paid off. It hardly ever had in the past. Although he was ecstatic to see his love, he wasn’t prepared for what he saw next. From out of a shadow, Cassie appeared and she was following his red haired temptress. “How does she know her?” He thought as he began to shadow both of them in the broad daylight. It was then that he realized what was happening. Cassie and the red head had obviously had some run in and Cassie felt the need to follow the red head. In any normal situation no man would have been able to figure out why, but Viktor knew. He was, after all, a part of the same culture. Cassie hadn’t seen him, but he saw the look in her eyes. Cassie and his red haired temptress were both black widows, and at war at that. He had seen it a few times before among the witches in Manitou Springs Colorado. It was more brutal than watching any other species fight. Women were ruthless. All of a sudden Viktor recalled a conversation he had had with Evey a few weeks back.
Evey was telling Viktor about her brother, Elijah. They had lived together for a short time before their parents died. They parted ways after the funeral. One day, Elijah showed up in New Orleans and vanished without a word into what seemed like thin air. He had been interested in Cassie and the night he left with her was the last time Evey saw him. There was nothing she could do. The police put out a missing persons report to ease her suffering but it was worthless. Even if he was murdered, it would be damn near impossible to find his killer. New Orleans had the highest per capita murder rate in the United States. Evey finally gave up six months later but never forgot her brother and longed to avenge him. Remembering this story, Viktor became aware of the severity of the situation. Cassie had killed Elijah, although he wasn’t sure how. She also disposed of his body without getting caught. He knew the jealousy of women could be deadly so he decided it was time to intervene, for Evey and for the red head.
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