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| #Post#: 20450-------------------------------------------------- | |
| New Orleans Story: Dark Fire Ghosts: A Robert Jones Story | |
| By: Raven Tepes Date: October 21, 2025, 6:54 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| The road into Savannah was a scar of asphalt lined with | |
| moss-draped oaks, their roots coiling like veins through the | |
| soil. The air was thick with the scent of salt, jasmine, and | |
| ghosts. | |
| Robert Jones throttled back on the Harley as he rolled into the | |
| historic district. Cobblestone streets shimmered with evening | |
| rain, and wrought-iron balconies hung heavy with flowers and | |
| secrets. | |
| Savannah had always been a crossroads � part living, part dead. | |
| You could feel it in the bones of the city. The walls whispered | |
| here. The air remembered. | |
| Robert parked his bike outside a bar called The Wailing Widow, | |
| tucked between two brick buildings older than the Civil War. | |
| Neon flickered over the door, shaped like a crying woman�s face. | |
| He stepped inside. Jazz played low, smoky and slow. Locals | |
| murmured over whiskey and fried shrimp. And there she was � | |
| sitting at the end of the bar, red leather jacket, silver hair | |
| shining in the dim light. | |
| �Thought you might swing back this way,� Raven said, not looking | |
| up from her glass. | |
| Robert smirked. �Guess I couldn�t stay away from your southern | |
| charm.� | |
| She chuckled softly. �You pick a hell of a time. Savannah�s | |
| restless. Dead things are walking again.� | |
| Whispers of the Weeping Lady: | |
| Raven slid him a newspaper, folded open to the headline: | |
| �Six Found Dead Near Colonial Park Cemetery � Police Baffled.� | |
| Robert scanned the article. Victims drained of life, no blood, | |
| no visible wounds. | |
| �Not vampires,� he muttered. | |
| Raven nodded. �No. Worse. Something old. Locals call her the | |
| Weeping Lady. She�s been haunting the riverfront for centuries � | |
| a ghost of lost love. But lately, she�s� different. Stronger. | |
| Feeding.� | |
| Robert frowned. �Ghosts don�t feed.� | |
| �They do,� Raven said, �if something�s giving them power.� | |
| She slid a charm across the counter � a small silver coin | |
| inscribed with runes. It vibrated faintly against his palm, warm | |
| and alive. �Witchfire sigil,� she explained. �We found these at | |
| every death site. Someone�s binding her. Using her grief as a | |
| weapon.� | |
| Robert pocketed the charm. �Then let�s unbind her.� | |
| The River Walk: | |
| The next night, fog rolled thick over the Savannah River. The | |
| moon was little more than a pale blur in the mist. | |
| Robert and Raven walked the cobbled path along the water, the | |
| sound of waves and distant laughter blending into something | |
| eerie. | |
| �This is where she drowned,� Raven whispered. �Eleanor Marston � | |
| 1784. Thrown into the river by her lover when she discovered he | |
| was a smuggler. They say she waits for him still.� | |
| Robert�s eyes glowed faintly orange. �She�s not waiting | |
| anymore.� | |
| A whisper floated through the air � soft, weeping, heartbreak | |
| turned to hunger. Then the fog thickened, and a figure formed | |
| within it. | |
| The Weeping Lady. | |
| She was beautiful and terrible � skin pale as river water, eyes | |
| black with grief, hair floating around her like a drowned halo. | |
| Her gown streamed like wet silk, and spectral chains dragged | |
| behind her, clinking softly on stone. | |
| �You shouldn�t have come here�� she moaned. | |
| Robert stepped forward. �Neither should you.� | |
| The Binding Circle: | |
| The ghost�s scream split the air, and the fog exploded outward | |
| like a wave. Spirits poured from the mist � lost souls bound to | |
| her grief, their faces twisted with pain. | |
| Robert summoned the dark fire. Black flames licked across his | |
| arms, casting jagged shadows through the fog. The fire didn�t | |
| burn light � it devoured it. | |
| Raven moved beside him, drawing her chain and chanting under her | |
| breath. Her voice wove through the air like a spell of defiance. | |
| The spirits struck first. They rushed like a hurricane of | |
| sorrow. Robert met them head-on, fists blazing, punching holes | |
| through incorporeal forms that shrieked and dissolved into | |
| embers. | |
| But for every one he destroyed, another rose. | |
| �She�s drawing from something,� Raven yelled over the chaos. | |
| �Something alive!� | |
| Robert focused � his supernatural senses flaring. There. A pulse | |
| of power near the riverbank. A figure standing in the shadows, | |
| chanting � cloaked in crimson robes. | |
| �Found your puppet master.� | |
| He blasted through the wall of spirits and tackled the robed | |
| figure. They rolled across the wet cobblestone. The hood fell | |
| back, revealing a young man � pale, eyes wide with fanatic glee. | |
| �You can�t stop her!� he hissed. �The Weeping Lady will cleanse | |
| this cursed city!� | |
| Robert growled, his eyes burning. �She�s not cleansing anything | |
| � she�s being used.� | |
| He drove his flaming hand into the sigil etched into the ground. | |
| The mark flared, cr@cked, and shattered. | |
| Unbinding the Lady: | |
| The ghost�s scream turned to a wail of agony and sorrow. The | |
| spirits began to scatter, their forms dissolving into mist. The | |
| Weeping Lady floated above the water, chains snapping one by | |
| one. | |
| Raven raised her hands, whispering words of release. �Eleanor | |
| Marston! Be free!� | |
| The ghost turned toward them, tears of black water streaming | |
| down her face. �He promised he�d come back�� | |
| Robert�s voice softened. �He�s long gone, darlin�. Let it go.� | |
| For a long, fragile moment, she stared at him � then smiled, | |
| faintly. The wind changed, the mist lifting with it. The Weeping | |
| Lady faded into the riverlight, her form scattering like petals | |
| on the tide. | |
| The silence that followed was almost holy. | |
| Raven exhaled. �That� was beautiful.� | |
| Robert flexed his burned hand. �Pain usually is, when you let it | |
| die right.� | |
| Ashes and Moonlight: | |
| Later, back at The Wailing Widow, they sat at the bar again � | |
| two weary souls with whiskey and scars. | |
| �So who was the kid?� Robert asked. | |
| �Member of the Crimson Veil cult,� Raven said. �Same group | |
| Duvall belonged to. Guess someone�s still trying to play god.� | |
| Robert sighed. �Figures.� | |
| She smiled at him � tired, warm, maybe even a little hopeful. | |
| �You ever stop?� | |
| He looked at his hands, the faint glow of dark fire still | |
| pulsing beneath the skin. �Stopping�s not in my nature.� | |
| They sat in silence a moment, the jazz low and lazy, the ghosts | |
| outside finally quiet. | |
| Raven raised her glass. �To the restless dead.� | |
| Robert clinked his against hers. �And the fools who keep them | |
| company.� | |
| They drank. | |
| Outside, the fog rolled back in from the river, and somewhere | |
| out there, something else stirred � old, waiting, watching. | |
| Robert felt it � that pull of the next storm, the next fight, | |
| the next fire. | |
| He smiled, stood, and threw a few bills on the bar. �Guess I | |
| better keep moving.� | |
| Raven�s eyes lingered on him. �Til next time, Fire Wolf.� | |
| He nodded once, pulled on his jacket, and walked into the | |
| Savannah night. The Harley�s roar followed, fading into the | |
| distance � a promise and a warning to whatever darkness dared to | |
| rise next. | |
| In Savannah, ghosts never rest � and neither does the man made | |
| of fire and shadow who rides between their worlds. | |
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