The Unrequited Ch. 09

Interrupting him she blurted out "I think I was attacked last night, and what is freaking me the fuck out is,... I think I was attacked by a ghost."

"What? Attacked! Have you called the police?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I do not want to end up in the Louisiana State Mental institution that's why."

"Ok, OK, slow down." His face now growing red Zeke walked over and relocked the front door and pulled down the shade. "Were you hurt? What happened? Did this happen at the party? I swear if one of those dipshits hurt you I will personally rip off their heads and shit down their necks."

"No, it happened at my apartment when I got home from Gus's party. It happened in the, in the..." Suddenly overcome with emotion she lay her head down on the bar and started to weep.

"I am calling the fucking cops right now. This is bullshit man, total bullshit! I will personally find the fucker who broke into your apartment and beat him to death myself." Suddenly choked up himself, the huge monster of a man pushed back a tear as he patted her back. In a low whisper he struggled to speak his next question out loud. "You weren't ra, I mean he did not take..." Struggling to say the unthinkable he balled up his fist and cried "Oh fuck it, this rat bastard did not rape you did he?"

"No."

"Did he hit you? What did he take? What did he look like?"

Her eyes red both with tears and fatigue she closed them and cried. "I am telling you, he, or it did not look like anything. Whatever attacked me was invisible and it happened in the shower."

Now Zeke frowned. He was definitely not a fan of bullshit and this story seemed piled high with it. An attack in the shower by an invisible attacker. This was crazy but it was obvious that something happened. Smiling he patted her hand. "Hey Jasmine look, we all had quite a bit to drink last night and that, coupled with some primo weed and all of those ghost stories at the end of the night might have caused you to..."

"Imagine all this? Yes, I have thought of that. All night I have been going over it and over it in my mind and I simply don't know. I have gotten no sleep at all and just spent the whole night and all morning walking through the quarter, too afraid to go back to my own home." Now starting to sit up straight her tone grew angrier as she added "You are the first person I have told about this and obviously you think I am a liar!"

"No no" he interrupted. "I don't think you are a liar but you need to tell me exactly what happened, verbatim. You must be leaving something out or something. There has to be a logical explanation for all of this."

For the next few minutes Jasmine relayed her story and her whole body shook as she relived it. She added that after she saw the words in the mirror she knows she must have passed out from fright since she woke up about an hour later still naked on the bathroom floor but the writing and the steam were gone. As soon as she woke up she got dressed as quickly as possible and ran out of her apartment, spending the whole night wandering the streets until she came into his bar.

"Wow! That sounds scary as shit." Zeke replied sympathetically. "But if you want my honest opinion, I think there might be a logical explanation for all of this."

"Oh?" she replied, suddenly feeling much better now that she at least got to tell someone about her ordeal. Listening to Zeke, who due to his multiple tattoos, military background and linebacker build seemed the type of man who feared nothing, she began to feel safe and calm down.

"Well, I know we all had quite a bit to drink last night which might be a factor here. Hell, I was pretty fucking lit when I stumbled home myself. My bet is you must have slipped in the shower and hit your head on the side of the tub. Being drunk and tired and it being quite late at night, and then adding a knock to your head, and I would not be a bit surprised to think you could imagine almost anything."

Leaning in he grinned as he continued "The mind is an amazing organ. Hell, once back in Nam, during my tour, my buddies and I had been drinking on point and I accidentally smashed my head against support beam to our dugout. Man, the next thing I knew I was shooting my M16 wildly into the empty jungle at what I could have sworn was a full battalion of Viet-Cong charging right at me. Luckily it was not our own troops and the only thing I fought off that night was a herd of very unlucky water buffalo. I was damn lucky I did not get court martialed for that!"

Sighing deeply this story seemed to soothe Jasmine who immediately downed the rest of her drink. Looking up into the kind eyes of Zeke she said pleadingly "You think? You really think it is possible that I just imagined it? I wish I could believe you but it seemed so fucking real."

Putting his huge arm around her shoulder he grinned. "I have no doubt darling, but that must be what happened. Doesn't it seem more likely that that was what happened and not some goofball ghost? Now, you are not physically hurt are you?"

"No, just a little tenderness on my stomach from the hot water, and my head still hurts a little from the bump on the floor, but other than that I seem fine."

"I tell you what, you can stay with my old lady and I tonight if you want, or I can go back and check the house out with you and you can stay there. I am sure once you see things in the harsh light of day it will be a lot less scary." Taking her amaretto glass away he replaced it with a mug and filled it with coffee. "I think a whole lot of this and a big dish of jambalaya and you will feel just fine."

"You would go back with me? Would you stay with me until I felt safe?"

"You bet girl." Winking he turned to go get them both lunch. Smirking in jest he said "You know, when I fantasized about you asking me back to your apartment, somehow it was always under a radically different scenario than this."

His joke cheering her up her old spunk began to return. Winking back, she snapped "Pig! What about your wife?"

"We can ask her to join in!" He laughed as she rolled her eyes. Seeing her start to return to normal he said "That's my girl."

A couple of hours later and several steaming and delicious bowls of jambalaya later and Zeke was walking Jasmine back to her apartment. Being close he looked over and saw the tension in her face as they climbed the steps to her flat.

"Take deep breaths girl, it is going to be alright!"

Forcing a smile on her face she opened the door and they both entered. On the surface everything seemed in order just like she left it at four am. Her bedroom looked like a bomb had gone off, her clothes scattered everywhere but this was not unusual. Her blood ran cold as she saw the door still wide open to her bathroom, the light still on.

Walking into the bathroom, Zeke looked around before looking back at her and smiling. Staring down into the tub he spied a small sliver of soap. Reaching down he picked it up and turned around to speak.

"I bet this is the problem right here. These little fuckers are very slippery and here it was right in the tub."

Seeing the soap for the first time all day Jasmine started to relax. "God do feel like a total fool. Jesus what a moron. I am so sorry to drag you all the way over here on our day off. It just seemed so real, I still am freaked out."

Smiling warmly, he dropped the sliver into the trash can. "Thrift is going to kill you girl. Buy yourself some new soap."

Walking tentatively into bathroom Jasmine wrapped her arms around his oil drum sized chest. "You are a good man Zeke. Thanks for putting up with my paranormal drama today."

"Think nothing of it" he added as they both walked back out into her small living room. Looking down at the coffee table he saw her purse was still where she had obviously tossed it the night before. Pointing at it he smirked. "Obviously you were quite freaked out. You have worked for me for five years and I have NEVER seen you go anywhere without your purse."

Laughing, she sat down on the couch and opened up her leather bag. "No kidding, or my phone either! I think today was the longest I have ever gone without either." Her relief was short lived as she began to rifle more and more violently through her bag.

"FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!" she yelled as she dumped her purse out on the couch.

"Now what?" He asked as he saw her growing more frantic.

"My phone is gone! JESUS this has been one fucked up day!!!"

"Calm down, calm down! It must be here somewhere."

"It's not here, this is where I ALWAYS keep it."

"Now think, where did you have it last?"

Rolling her eyes, she dropped to her knees and began looking under the couch. "Why do people always ask that question. If I knew that it would not be lost."

Shaking his head, he had to sigh. He loved Jasmine like a daughter and just like his actual daughter she was just as crazed when she loses something. Growing more irritated she began tossing pillows around the room and digging down into the couch.

"Can I make a suggestion?" He said with a smirk on his face as Jasmine got up on the couch. Seeing her nod, he continued. "I bet you left it over at Gus's house. I saw you using it last night and you must have dropped it. Why don't you call over there and ask him if he has seen it?"

"It is going to be kind of hard to call him without my phone. I don't have a landline."

Now rolling his eyes he sighed. "You kids are too much. My daughter does not have a landline either. I have always told her to because, hey, what happens in situations like this now?"

Grinning Jasmine said "Thanks Dad! So, can I borrow your phone to call Gus?"

With the afternoon wearing on, the large grandfather clock in Gus's foyer rang out three o'clock as both he and Angeline slept soundly on his bed, the tiny dog emerging from under the bed to snuggle up next to her master in the covers. The loud ringing of his doorbell woke them both.

"What the fu..." he said as he yawned and looked over at the clock on his nightstand. Seeing the time, he lay back on the mattress and sighed as his dog began to rustle. Petting Angeline as he sat up he laughed. "It looks like I was just not meant to get any sleep today! That was only two hours." Standing up and pulling on his boxers he stumbled down the stairs to the front door. Opening it he was surprised to see three young women in blue uniforms staring back at him with a slight look of surprise on their faces.

"Mr. Le Blanc?"

"Yes"

"I apologize we are late. We are the cleanup crew from the caterers. The job we had this morning took a lot longer than we expected so we are really late. We are really sorry to have kept you waiting but we promise we will get your house all cleaned up before you know it. Do you mind if we come in?"

His eyes still half closed in sleep Gus nodded and stood behind the door as the three women stepped inside. The leader of the group could not help but get a good long look at him in his nearly naked state as he stretched his arms up behind his neck. Seeing his well chiseled chest she grinned as she thought this job was going to come with an extra visual perk.

"Say Mr. Le Blanc" she added in a shameless flirty tone "I heard from the waitstaff that you gave quite the blowout last night. I bet it was a fun party and no doubt we will have lots to clean up."

His eyes still closed he smiled as they entered.

"Oh my!" she exclaimed as she looked into the main parlor. "I am so sorry Mr. Le Blanc. I just feel terrible. Obviously you already cleaned up this place yourself, it is spotless! Anything we would do would just make it dirtier. I will make sure you get a full refund on the cleaning services you bought."

The words soaking into his sleep deprived ears Gus now popped open his eyes as his mind made sense of what he was hearing. "Wait a minute! You weren't here earlier? You did not clean up already?"

Blushing she said "No, like I said. We were running very late."

"Well I certainly did not clean up anything and the house was a complete wreck last night. If you did not clean-up, who did? You must have had another group come in."

"Not to argue sir, but really, we did not do this."

"Well, whoever did a great job." Reaching into a side table he pulled out his wallet and took out three crisp one hundred dollar bills and gave them to the cleaning leader. Winking as he saw her lusty stare at his body he smiled. "You guys earned your tip. Now, if you don't mind, I really need to hit the hay."

Now with an unexpected tip the girls grinned as they took the money and left. Turning back to the main staircase he called to Angeline who was yawning and stretching on the top step. "So baby, did YOU clean up the house? No? Well if it wasn't you who was it? They must of brought in another crew at the caterers, no wonder you were scared." Walking up the stairs he scooped up the exhausted dog and they both went back to bed. Looking over at his nightstand he saw that his cell phone was flashing indicating he had a text. Looking down at the screen he saw it was from Jasmine and read the text.

"It was me."

Scrunching his face up in a confused look he texted back "What was?" before he lay back down on his thick, cool and very inviting pillow. Right as he started to drift off his cellphone rang and he saw it was from Zeke.

Normally he would have let it go to voicemail, but getting a call from him was highly unusual. Answering the phone, he said "Zeke?"

"No Babe, it's not Zeke its me."

"Jasmine?"

"Yeah, look, is my phone over there? I can't find it and I think I may have left it at your house last night."

A chill suddenly went up Gus's spine as he said "Well. If you don't have your phone someone does because I have gotten several texts from you all day!"