Chapter 7. A girl out of time

The look on Rosalyn's face made Rick pause for a good couple seconds "Rosalyn… do you even realize how long you've been here?"

"N-no… no… that cannot be…" Rosalyn stammered softly, slowly sinking to her knees and balling her fists as her sides as unshed tears misted her eyes "We've been stuck here that long? I… I knew it had to have been at least a couple months… but I never dreamed… has it really been more than a hundred years?"

Rick felt his heart clench in his chest at the sight of her distress and he found himself kneeling down on the floor in front of her "What I read… it says your family disappeared in May of 1889… so… yeah, about 129 years… were you really unaware of this?"

"Bernard… what did you do?..." Rosalyn whispered softly, her voice trembling as much as her hands presently were.

"What do you mean? How is this Bernard person responsible?" Rick asked her, it felt like just when he was starting to get somewhat of a grasp, Rosalyn went and confused him once again.

"Cajun voodoo…" Rosalyn replied, mustering the strength to take a deep breath and look Rick in the face "Bernard Dubois was originally from the French Quarter of Louisiana… there were whispers that his mother was really a voodoo priestess, but most of the gentry passed it off as the excited rambling of bored commonfolk… probably because of the huge inheritance he got from his mother's father passing away, Bernard became extremely wealthy and highly eligible for matchmaking mamas looking to find their daughter's a rich husband"

Both Rosalyn and Rick about jumped out of their skin when they felt the floor rumbling and quaking from what seemed to be a great force coming from the floor below them, Rick pulled Rosalyn up to her feet "Is there somewhere we can go where whatever this is won't find us?"

Rosalyn nodded and turned to continue quickly down the hall, doing her best not trip over the hem of her dress in her anxious flustered state "My apartments are down this way, I find myself mostly undisturbed there"

"Mostly?" Rick asked, as if he was too sure about the answer he was given.

"Well, sometimes I can hear him yelling or things smashing from below or the floor above, but it's very faint… I usually only come out to get food from the kitchen… which is what I was doing when you arrived" Rosalyn explained "I never did make it there, we'll have to go back out again after we've had a chance to talk…"

"The floor above? I thought you said he never comes up here" Rick replied, his brow furrowing as his confusion deepened "How can you be hearing him making that ruckus from the next floor up?"

Rosalyn's expression turned thoughtful, but as confused as him as well "I'm not sure… however, I am pretty sure he might be using old passageways through the walls that slaves used to use, when the family didn't want them seen by their fancy house guests… my father had those closed up though, he never agreed with the whole slavery nonsense and decreed that the passageways served no purpose but to be a dark reminder of pain and suffering… maybe Bernard opened them back up?"

Rick thought about this a moment "It sounds like he might have done so in order to bypass the second floor… since you tell me it seems like something is preventing him from stepping foot here"

At the sound of another heavy object smashing against a wall a floor below them, Rosalyn flinched and gestured down the hall "Please, let's continue to my apartments… I know he can't come up here, but… being out here in the open like this… I feel exposed and vulnerable…"

Reaching for Rosalyn's hand, Rick gave it a gentle squeeze and gave her a reassuring smile "Lead the way, then you can tell me who this Bernard Dubois jerk is"