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"Legba": At a bus terminal in New Orleans, Mait "Carry-4" Carrefour takes a seat across from an elderly man called Attibon. They watch the people come and go, until Attibon asks Carry-4 what he's waiting for at the station. The man responds that he'll know what he's waiting for when he sees

Quote1 My name's Priscilla, or you can call me by my stage name if you want. That's Voodoo. Quote2
Priscilla Kitaen

Voodoo #1 is an issue of the series Voodoo (Volume 1) with a cover date of November, 1997.

Synopsis for "Legba"

At a bus terminal in New Orleans, Mait "Carry-4" Carrefour takes a seat across from an elderly man called Attibon. They watch the people come and go, until Attibon asks Carry-4 what he's waiting for at the station. The man responds that he'll know what he's waiting for when he sees it. As if to answer him, a beautiful woman walks up to them and asks for directions. She introduces herself as Priscilla Kitaen, but her stage name is Voodoo. Attibon expresses concern for her, commenting that she ought to be careful living up to a powerful name like that. She brushes it off, and explains that she is an exotic dancer who has just come back to the city, and is looking for a job. Not so much by coincidence, Carry-4 knows a club owner, and offers to get her a job at the Midnight Lounge.

Carry-4 takes Priscilla to the Midnight Lounge, where a man is asking Christian Charles, the proprietor, about a dancer named Angel who seems to have gone missing. Dismissively, Charles has one of his men take the man away. He turns his attention to Carry-4 and Voodoo, and is immediately enchanted by her. He promises that Carry-4's recommendation is good with him, and asks the girl to show him what she can do, right now.

Charles asks the control room to play some loud music with a lot of bass for Voodoo to dance to. Meanwhile, Claude takes the man from before upstairs. While Voodoo dances, Claude and his companions take the man into a room with a drain in the floor and shoot him through the head, masked by the volume of the music. Downstairs, Christian Charles is very impressed with Voodoo and gladly offers her a job. In the meantime, he sends Carry-4 to take her to meet the other girls. Voodoo is quite pleased, though she is put out by a remark Charles makes about the doors of opportunity swinging both ways.

Carry-4 introduces Voodoo to a dancer named Purity, who suggests that Voodoo is a replacement for Angel, who is still missing. Carry-4 considers that Angel probably ran away to Los Angeles. After Carry-4 leaves, Purity takes Voodoo to find an outfit, making fun of the pink jumpsuit that Priscilla brought with her. Voodoo asks about the job, and Purity admits that she hasn't been there long. She suggests that Angel's room at their boarding house will likely be vacant, adding that the girl was a cokehead and prone to tantrums. She expects that the girl will turn up somewhere.

Angel does turn up - as a corpse. The homicide detectives are aggravated to have yet another girl from the Midnight lounge on their hands. Despite the multitude of cuts and stab wounds on her body, there is little blood on the ground around her, and the police determine that she must have been killed and drained elsewhere, and then dumped on the street. Lt. Dave Dove believes that they may have a serial killer on their hands, and decides that they should investigate Angel's lodgings.

Voodoo and Purity head to the boarding house as it begins to rain, but find themselves unable to enter do to the police cordon. Fortunately, Lt. Dove allows them inside, hoping that they can help clear up the case. Dove leads them to Angel's room, which is filled with strange charms and symbols of the Voodoo religion. This is strange, as Purity knows that Angel was supposed to have been Catholic. Due to the investigation, Angel's room has to be sealed off, and as a result, Voodoo is left on the street with nowhere to go.

Caught in the rain, Priscilla is surprised to meet Attibon, who jokes that he had already warned her about her name. He assumes that she is looking for accommodation, and she eagerly accepts his help after determining that he seems trustworthy. She comments that she sees a resemblance between he and Carry-4. Attibon responds that she ought to remember that the boy's real name is Mait Carrefour, and that in some way, he and Carrefour are related.

Attibon leads Priscilla to a large mansion called the Royale, which he claims is a place of great repute. Inside, they meet an elderly pair called Freda - the proprietress - and Saturday. As it turns out, Saturday was once a hired killer despite having been born with no eyes, and Freda was once a hooker. Attibon explains that he is the doorman for the Royale, and that once upon a time, people would actually seek the place out, but these days he has to go find patrons - like he found her.

He shows Priscilla to her room, and indicates that the thumping upstairs is coming from a Mr. D in the attic room. Priscilla discovers a jar full of liquid and hornets, and is disgusted. Attibon explains that it's his hornet trap. He pours light beer into the jar and the hornets worm their way in, but they can't find their way out. Priscilla comments that it's sad that something so colourful doesn't even understand that it's going to die. Attibon comments that she ought not to waste her pity on the insects. Sinners are prone to getting themselves caught in traps, he says.

At the Midnight Lounge, a dancer named Miss Christy catches Christian Charles' eye, and he has her taken upstairs by Claude. He takes her into a room with a cage in it, and then beats her with brass knuckles before shackling her inside the cage.

Attibon explains that as a doorman it's important for him to know that not all doors swing both ways, that some are always open and others always closed. Some doors, people don't realize are doors until they're halfway through them. He concludes with the riddle "when is a door not a door?" Voodoo coyly responds with the rote answer "when it's ajar." With that, he leaves her alone, and she goes to sleep.

In the room above the Midnight Lounge, Miss Christy looks on in horror as Christian Charles enters the room, strips naked and sits on a throne before her. The cage is raised above him, and his men use spears to stab up into it. The girl's blood drips down through the bars onto Christian Charles' face. His men wonder how many more of these girls he will have to kill before he has what he needs.

Meanwhile, Priscilla's room slowly fills with green smoke. The smoke dissipates to reveal the other patrons of the Royale standing over the sleeping girl. They discuss her importance to them, and how they believe she may be able to help them fight the White Dog - evidently, Christian Charles. Each of them leaves a token of theirs on her chest. Attibon jokes that he said Voodoo should watch out for her name, now a victim of voodoo magic.

Appearing in "Legba"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Mait "Carry-4" Carrefour
  • Purity
  • Attibon

Antagonists:

  • Christian Charles
  • Claude

Other Characters:

  • Angela Jane "Angel" Connor (Appears only as a corpse)
  • Lieutenant Dave Dove
  • Freda
  • Voodoo Gods (First appearance)
    • Baron Samedi
  • Misty

Locations:

Items:


Vehicles:



Notes



See Also

Recommended Reading

Links and References

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