Le Appetite- Part 17

[pi****]

“That can’t be true,” Geneva said, not really wanting to believe it. “She only had one, how could she have descendants? How could this story have anything to do with my issues?”

“Well that would be true if Marie was Aurelie’s only daughter,” Steven’s eyes glimmered with the anticipation of his next big reveal.

“She wasn’t???” retorted G.

“No…” he said in a low solemn voice… “She had another… Estelle Genevieve Baptiste. But Estelle was adopted by Aurelie’s *** Celeste and her husband when Aurelie got pregnant young and the father, a neighbor boy refused to marry her.”

“How awful, ***d to give up her first only to have her second killed in that way… I think I understand her anger. I might lose my mind too.” Geneva could hardly believe what she was hearing. Was this truly her ancestor? Was the curse truly real?

Steven went on, “Don’t get too excited yet though, nothing of note happens with Estelle, she married early, her daughters on the other hand…”

“Estelle grew to have twin daughters, Lucille and Adelle. And that’s where all the trouble starts…”

A Thief in the Night

“Dear Diary,

Daddy always said boys ain’t nothing but trouble. But those boys don’t know what trouble we can be…”

Steven read from one of the pages randomly strewn across his desk.

Geneva gasped as he read, “They had a diary?”

“Yes, I requested the digitized manuscript from the university. It was donated by the family…”

“…I’m guessing it was in an effort to humanize the girls’ struggles, after their reputation as ***esses had already taken hold through the county…”

“…I was going to put these pages together for you G.” She could hardly believe it. This was more effort than Dr. Asics had ever put into trying to give her answers, and it was part of his job.

“…From what I’ve gathered, the girls had sort of a reputation before the killings began. Lucille mentions monthly ***s that began to last much longer than usual until they just wouldn’t go away. Sound familiar?”

“Very familiar….” Geneva thought to herself, as she refused to interrupt.

So Steven went on, “Listen to this, G… ‘They say the *** is a natural part of a woman’s cycle, but ain’t nothing natural about how long it’s lasted… Adelle says hers went away for a few days after she first slept with Abel Landry from down the way. She says he’s not the only one she’s slept with either and that I should make my play for one of the other Landry men.’…”

Geneva couldn’t help but shout this time, “That sounds exactly like me!…”

Steven found himself interrupting again, “Yeah it’s eerie right? But get this, apparently Adelle did set Lucille up with one of the Landry fellows. But when the time came to do the deed Lucille changed her mind. Unfortunately the big fella had ‘other plans’. Look…”

“Dear Diary,

I did what I had to and stuck that pig right in his side for trying to *** my ***. And you know something it felt good.”

“Wait, both twins used the same diary?” Geneva questioned.

“They did, and apparently Adelle killed him where he stood.”

“After that they went on the run town to town, across the country, leaving bodies in their wake.”

“And what became of them?” Geneva asked patiently.

“No one truly knows, though it’s now believed Adelle was killed when a juke joint caught fire and Lucille went on to adopt the surname Bellanger as an alias after her husband, with whom she settled down.”

“But that’s my last name!” Geneva shouted loud enough to wake the neighbors.

“I know…” Steven muttered to himself. “I know.”