"Huh?" "You sure you got that?" "Don't strain yourself." "Well, that's it." "Turned in my key." "Yep." "No turning back now." "You still think this is a good idea?" "What, me driving this thing?" "I told you, I'm more than happy to let you drive." "No, this, moving in with you." "Having this baby." "Jessie, you're the best thing that ever happened to me." "I've been ready for this for a long time." "I just remembered the weirdest dream I had last night." "It's the last chance to remove it." "A little more suction, please." "Can't see a thing in there." "It's skull." "It's part of the guy's skull." "Intertrochanteric fracture in your hip." "Your left clavicle and three ribs are shattered." "You've got compound fractures in your right and left tibia." "Good news is you will walk again within three or four months of therapy." "My baby?" "I'm sorry." "I know it's been a long haul for you, Jessie." "But we'll still need to send a physical therapist to you at home." "Can someone come pick you up?" "Your mother or father?" "Uh, my mom died of cancer when I was a baby, and my father gave me to my aunt to be raised after my mom died." "I haven't seen him in years." "Miss Laurent, can he come here to pick you up?" "Dad?" "Thanks for picking me up, Dad." "Hmm." "Glad I could help." "Sorry about your boyfriend." "This was your mother's room." "You're gonna have to stay in here." "The other bedrooms are upstairs." "Let's get you in bed." "When your aunt passed away, they gave me some things you had there." "Clothes." "You hungry?" "I could make you a sandwich or something." "Uh..." "No, I'm fine." "Just tired is all." "Oh, yeah, the water out of the tap sometimes comes out bad." "You just let it run a little, it'll clear up." "Preston." "Dad?" "You here?" "Oh, my word." "Thank you, Mama." "Ahh!" "Hello,Jessabelle." "Mom." "Iwentbackand  forth100times whetherornot thiswasagoodidea ." "Makingthesetapes." "Butasyoucan see , hereI am." "ItisMarch14,  anditis 1988, andI amsevenmonths pregnantwithyou." "Iloveyou,Jessabelle." "Iloveyou." "Ifyou'rewatchingthis, itmeansI'mgone." "ButI don'twantthis tobeaday ofsadness." "Iwantit to be  adayof happiness." "SoI 'mnoteven gonnatalkaboutme." "Theonlything that'simportant isthatyouknow thatI loveyou." "AndthatIhavebeen  watchingoveryou,always." "Okay." "So,enough ofthatsadshit." "Itoldyourfather thatI wantedhim togiveyouthistape  onyour18thbirthday." "Soforyou, itis2006." "HappyBirthday!" "HappyBirthday,baby!" "Ithoughtabout havinga cake, butexplainingall thistoMrs.Davis justwouldhavebeen alittletooweird." "Uh,Mrs.Davis isourcook, andifshe'sthere, couldyoutellher  Isaidhi ?" "She'ssosweet." "Thatoughtto freak herout,though." "Sheisscaredofghosts." "Whoo-oo-oo!" "Anyway,um,Iwanted tomakethistape becauseI wantedyou togetto knowme." "AndI wantedto give youa birthdaygift, abirthdayreading withmycards." "Iamreally goodatthis." "I'malwaysright." "Youcan'tcutthe deck, sothiswillhavetodo ." "Herewego ." "I still have your bracelet, Mom." "Okay." "SothisisDeath." "Butitdoesn't mean" death"death." "Itmeanstransition." "Andthisyear, your18thyear, isgonnabe  ayearof transition." "Youknowwhatitsays here ?" "Itsaysthatyou 've neverleftSt.Francis andthatyou're nevergonnaleave." "Baby,you'vegotta getoutthere andseetheworld." "There'ssomuch greatstuffoutthere." "SuitsofCups." "That'sthewatersign, andwateris pragmatic." "Itgoestheway  ofleastresistance." "Butthisis  alotof water." "Areyouaswimmer, ordoyoudosomething withthesea?" "I can't even swim." "You'rea homebody, justlikeyourmama." "Wrong again." "You're terrible at this!" "Well,itsayshere thatyou'renotalone." "Thatthereis apresence inthehousewithyou." "It'snotabad thing." "Thereareguardian angelseverywhere." "MaybeI 'mseeingme ." "Uh!" "Yes,soshe'sashe." "It'sa female." "Um..." "Shewantsyou outofthehouse." "Shesaysit 'shers." "Jesus, Dad!" "You scared the shit out of me!" "Where did you get that?" "I asked you a goddamn question!" "I said, "Where did you get that?"" "I found it in my room, in Mom's room." "Don't, Dad!" "Don't!" "What are you doing?" "Dad, what are you doing?" "Oh!" "No, Dad." "Oh, God, Dad." "No more snooping around." "Dad?" "Dad?" "Dad." "Dad!" "Dad." "It'spastyourbedtime, sweetie." "Thatthereis apresence inthehousewithyou." "Who are you?" "Jessabelle." "I made breakfast." "Look, I'm sorry about last night." "I was a little drunk." "It's not gonna happen again." "It's all right." "That was your mother's old chair." "It was out in the shed." "Didn't expect to see your mother last night." "That tape, I didn't know she made that tape, that she actually went through with it." "You just found that one tape?" "Uh-huh, just one." "Hello,Jessabelle." "Iloveyou." "I love you too, Mom." "It'sbeenthreeweeks sinceourlastreading." "Therewasso much weirdstuffin there, soI askedMosesaboutit." "NotTenCommandmentsMoses, butmyfriendMoses frommychurch onJerry'sCreek." "Don'ttellDad." "He'dkillme ." "Mosestaughtme  howtoreadcards." "SoI showedhimyourreading, andhesaidsomething interesting." "Hesaidthatthe two  presencesinthehouse, thetwofemales, they'rebothyou." "You'vebeenhaving nightmares,right?" "Andwhenyousee it,  thispresence, it'sbroken,right?" "It'sa demon, butit'san innerdemon." "Youwerein some sortofaccident orsomething, ormaybesomebody youknowwas." "Now,I wantyou tolistento me ." "Itwasn'tyourfault." "Stopblaming yourself,sweetheart." "Itwasn'tyourfault." "Okay ?" "Nowthatwe know that'swhatthat lastreadingmeant..." "Imean,that'swhat Mosessays." "So,we'regonna getyouanew one ." "Allright." "Death." "Thatmeanstransition." "Youreallydon'thave toworryaboutthat." "Iseeavery horribledeath." "Dad?" "Miss Laurent?" "I was knocking, but I know you're in a wheelchair, so I got in." "Hi." "It's just Jessie." "Uh, the hospital told you I was coming, right?" "Uh, no." "Um, yes." "Yes." "Oh." "You must be Miss Arlenna." "Rosaura." "You can call me Rosaura." "It's great to meet you." "Let's get started." "Okay." "Okay." "You feel good?" "I'll be back and check on you, okay?" "Mmm-hmm." "No, no!" "No, no!" "What the hell's going on?" "Just calm down." "Settle down." "It's nothing." "It's nothing." "Where the hell were you?" "Huh?" "I'm sorry." "I'm so sorry, Mr. Laurent." "It was only five minutes." "Get out!" "Now." "I'm sorry." "Get out!" "What did you mean by "nothing", Dad?" "What's nothing?" "What are you doing?" "It's her goddamn tapes!" "She's got you scared out of your mind." "I told her not to do this." "But, Dad, it's Mom." "It's all I have of her!" "That thing on these tapes is not your mother." "Five weeks into her pregnancy, we found out she had tumors in her brain." "She wouldn't do chemo." "Nothing to help herself." "It ate her mind, the cancer." "It just wasn't her anymore." "But, Dad, I want to watch them!" "Why?" "So she can scare the shit out of you some more?" "I'm gonna burn these tapes." "Dad, no!" "No, Dad!" "Don't, Dad!" "Dad!" "Dad." "Oh, God!" "Dad!" "Dad!" "Jessie!" "Jessie!" "No!" "Dad!" "Dad!" "Goodbye, Leon." "May your soul finally find peace." "Amen." "Hey, Jessie." "Preston." "How you been?" "Uh..." "That was a really stupid question." "I heard you were in town last week." "I would have come over, but I figured I should call first." "I tried you a few times, but no one picked up." "I'm sorry." "My Dad's phone is upstairs, and it's gonna be a few more weeks before I can walk upstairs to answer it." "Right." "I'm sorry." "It's really good to see you, Preston." "It's good to see you, too." "I'm really sorry about your dad." "Jessie?" "Jessie, you okay?" "Hey." "Morning." "Good morning." "Uh..." "You stayed here all night?" "Yeah, well, I figured I'd stick around, make sure you're okay." "Thanks." "You didn't have to." "Well, I guess I should get going home." "But I'd love to see you again, though." "Be okay if I come by some other time?" "Yeah." "Yeah, I'd like that." "All right." "You take care." "Uh, wait, wait." "Please don't go." "What?" "If I don't talk to somebody, I'm gonna go crazy." "Maybe I already am crazy." "Okay." "I don't gotta go anywhere." "I'll stay right here." "Thank you." "But you think we can get the hell out of this place?" "Kind of gives me the creeps." "Yeah." "Pretty much everybody's still here." "Rick Foster just got back from Afghanistan." "But he's going back, I think." "He's still married to Shawna." "If I was married to Shawna, I'd be going back, too." "Mary Kimball's been married and divorced twice." "Twice?" "She's got three kids." "Lives in that new subdivision over by the quarry." "The quarry." "So, the quarry's still there, huh?" "Yes, well, you know, it is a big, giant hole." "You can't really move a big, giant hole." "Smart ass." "Cut me some slack." "Yeah." "Nothing's changed, really." "Marriages and mortgages." "I can see why you couldn't get out fast enough." "Uh..." "Preston, I'm so sorry." "Hey, you don't gotta explain to me." "If I'd gotten into college, I would've left this town and never looked back." "Never would have given it a second thought." "That's not true." "I thought about this place a lot." "I missed you." "I'm sorry I didn't call more." "I just wanted a clean breakaway, I guess." "But me leaving never had anything to do with you." "It's okay." "I understand." "How have you been?" "Married." "Oh, uh..." "Where did she think you were last night?" "Oh, I told her the truth." "I told her I was with a Make-A-Wish kid." "So tell me what's going on." "Oh..." "You seemed so scared back there." "Um, okay." "I've been having nightmares." "I've been having really bad dreams, and they're so real that I think I'm going crazy." "I dreamed there's this girl." "She looks dead, and she's trying to get me, kill me." "And there's this man." "It looks like he's been burnt to death, and he looks at me like I did it." "Like whatever happened to him, it was my fault." "Well, after everything you've been through, it would be weird if you weren't having nightmares, right?" "Have you thought about seeing a shrink?" "I can't afford it." "I mean, if I had any money at all," "I wouldn't have come home to live with Dad." "I'm flat broke." "And there are these tapes." "Nowthatwe know that'swhatthat lastreadingmeant..." "Imean,that'swhat Mosessays." "So,we'regonna getyouanew one ." "I really don't think you should be watching these anymore." "It's no wonder why you're having nightmares." "It's not good for you." "Would you watch them if it was your mom?" "Your only chance to get to know her?" "Yeah, I would, but I'd wait, wait until I was recuperated." "Not when I was still stuck in this house where she died." "I mean, it's just weird." "And besides, she's wrong more than she's right." "She said you never left town, you love to swim." "She said Dad was gonna die." "No, she thought you were gonna die." "She said 10 things that were wrong, and you picked one that was almost right." "Jessie, she didn't predict your dad's death." "She thought she saw your death, and she was wrong about everything." "Now, look, I've been thinking about your dreams." "That girl you keep seeing, it's you." "And the guy that burnt in the fire, you're having a nightmare about your accident." "Shit, that's my wife." "I'm sorry, but I've gotta go." "Here." "That's my work cell." "It's got my home phone number on it." "You call me any time, day or night, all right?" "Promise?" "Okay." "I'm sorry." "I gotta go." "Thank you, Preston." "Yeah, of course." "Now you take care." "Thisisbeautiful SouthLouisiana." "Andhereis thebelle ofSouthLouisiana." "That'sright." "Hereshe is." "I'mgonnasend thistoMr.HughHefner, andI 'mgonna makemesomemoney ontheside." "Themostbeautifulwoman inSouthLouisiana." "Bad." "Thisis thefamilyportrait." "  Wait a minute." "Wait." "Imightjust sendmesometapes tothatMr.HughHefner." "Thesebugs areeatingmy assup!" " Let's see those feet." " Where'd they go?" "Thereitis ." "Oh!" "Theresheis." "Baby!" "Hey,baby,you can'timproveperfection." "Lookatthat." "Whatareyoudoing?" "Recording forposterity." "Thosewhodon't rememberthepastare  doomedtorepeatit." "Okay,well,let's gointothefuture." "MerryChristmas!" "MerryChristmas!" "Yeah!" "Now,listen, Iwantto showyou  howtouseit." "Youjusttakeit,  pointit,andshootit." "Yougotit ?" "Okay,yougotit?" "Justholdit ." "MerryChristmas!" "MerryChristmas!" "Mrs.Davis, Ithinkthesepeople areaboutreadytoeat." "They'regonna eatthefurniture ifwedon'tsit them downandfeedthem." "I'mgonnado thething." "What?" "Okay." "Let'swork withthis,okay?" "Excuse me." "Before you unwrap the presents and get into some funky music," "Ijustwantedtotake  alittlesecondhere tobragaboutsomething." "Oh,yeah,surprise." "Howveryunlikeyou ,Leon." "Nowwaitaminute." "Nowwaitaminute." "Ithascometomyattention thatmylovely, devotedwife iswithchild." "I'mpregnant!" "Raiseyour glassesandtoast toLeonandKate!" "Congratulations." "Icandrink." "You'realreadydead, Jessabelle." "You'realreadydead!" "Preston?" "I'm sorry." "I know I said I wouldn't call, but..." "Whoisthis?" "Uh..." "It's Jessie, Jessie Laurent." "Who is this?" "Comecloser." "Closer." "Yes." "Hey." "You all right?" "Sam just told me you called last night." "I'm all right." "I'm so sorry." "I just got scared." "Everything okay at home?" "Well, "okay" is stretching it a bit, but I'm fine." "Well, I'm glad you're here." "All right." "Well, tell me what happened." "Oh, you see that, too?" "Yeah." "What is that?" "I don't know." "I think somebody's out there." "There was somebody definitely out there last night." "You think that old boat still works?" "Sure." "What is that?" "Mmm." "Some kind of voodoo or something." "Half the cemeteries in this parish are full of that kind of shit." "But why would they put it on our land?" "Yeah, someone's definitely been out here, all right." "That's pretty fresh." "What?" "There's something down there." "What is that?" "What are you doing?" "This isn't my first time in the bayou." "Hmm." "That's weird." "That's my birthday." "Why would someone want to spook you like this?" "Or maybe that's a real gravestone." "Maybe you had a twin sister or something." "I never had a sister." "And why would we both have the same name?" "I don't know." "I've got cousins with two Beauregards in their family." "They just like the name." "But who killed that chicken?" "And who brings flowers?" "Do you think there's something under that stone?" "All right." "I guess we'll go back to your house and see what kind of tools you've got." "Uh!" "You don't recall any mention of your parents having another little girl?" "Hmm." "Well, you were right to call us." "I suspect it was a stillbirth." "We'll run some tests, find out if she was a relative of yours based on your DNA sample." "Of course we have a sample of your daddy already from his autopsy." "So we'll give you a call when we find out who this infant was." "Thank you, Sheriff." "We knew we had to call you right away." "Remind me again the nature of your relationship with Miss Laurent." "We're old friends from high school." "Y'all have a good night, then." "Thank you, Sheriff." "You know you can't stay here, right?" "I've got nowhere else to go." "Yeah, you do." "You all right?" "Yeah." "Hey, honey." "Hey, Sam, this is Jessie." "Jessie, this is Sam, my wife." "It's almost 1:00 a.m. I gotta work tomorrow." "Yeah, I know." "Um, this is my fault." "I'm so sorry." "I'm the one who dragged him all into this." "We don't have an extra room." "Hope the couch is okay for you." "Yeah, it's fine." "I need to get to bed." "Thank..." "I'm sorry about that." "Undo these." "Yeah." "Okay, now." "Yeah, thanks." "All right." "Well, just let me know if you need anything else." "Thank you." "Night." "I'm sorry for getting you in trouble last night." "That's all right." "That's what old friends are for." "You're just lucky you were asleep when she left for work this morning." "I see." "Yeah." "So why do you wanna go to Woodbury?" "Well, I think there's somebody who might know who that baby girl is." "Do you remember Scott Davis from school?" "Yeah, I remember him." "His mom, Abbey, used to cook for my mom and dad back before I was born." "Well, if she's still alive, I'll take you there." "Excuse me, sir." "Abigail Davis live here?" "Thank you." "Mrs. Davis?" "Hey, Mrs. Davis." "I used to go to school with your son, Scott." "It's Preston." "Remember me?" "Me and Scott used to play together when we were little." "You used to yell at us for jumping off your garage." "Remember?" "Preston Saunders." "You're gonna break your arm up there, and I'm gonna laugh my ass off." "It's good to see you, Mrs. Davis." "It's been a long time." "There's someone else here to see you." "This is Jessie." "Jessie Laurent." "You used to cook for her folks." "Jessie Laurent?" "Mmm-hmm." "Jessabelle!" "Mrs. Davis." "God, is she all right?" "What did she say?" "I don't know." "She say, "Rain wet us, Mama." ""Sun dried us, Papa." ""The betrayers are evil." ""Call down Djowou." "Call down Djowou will deal with them."" "What's that mean?" "It's an old song from Haiti." "They sing it to call the spirits to possess someone." "Tell Moses Jessabelle get what's coming to her!" "You okay?" "Goddamn voodoo shit." "I always hated Scott's mom." "Jessie, don't worry." "It's just some crazy old lady." "Probably says shit like that all the time." "What does that mean "they call the spirits to get possessed"?" "On purpose?" "Well, yeah." "In voodoo, possession ain't a bad thing." "What?" "Yeah, it's part of their ceremonies." "You call down the spirits, and they possess you, and you dance around." "That's what they do." "How do you know that?" "You grew up here, too." "There's voodoo all around this place." "They really get possessed?" "Well, that depends on who you ask." "I think it's like hypnosis." "You know, like faith-healing, speaking in tongues." "If you're raised to believe that, that's what you're gonna think is real." "Plus they've got drums going, people dancing around." "They rub blood on you." "You think you're possessed." ""Moses"." "She said, "Tell Moses."" "I don't know." "Voodoo mixes all kinds of religions, Catholic, African." "It's all the same to them." "No, my mom knew a Moses." "She said that on the tape." "She learned tarot cards from Moses at her church." "I think her church was somewhere out near Jerry's Creek." "God damn it." "Well, I guess you get to see my patented 175-point turn." "No, wait, wait, wait." "What's that?" ""Moses Harper." "Born December 12th, 1952." ""Died June 12th, 1988."" ""Legba, open the gate." "Legba, let Moses back in."" "Get out." "I'm Preston." "This here is my friend..." "Let's go, Preston." "Look, now, we don't want any trouble." "Hey!" "Stop it!" "Wait!" " Preston, you all right?" " Go!" "You're not coming back here." "Ever." "There's no way." "Preston..." "You're not gonna stay here." "You go in." "Get whatever you need." "You can stay with us again." "Your wife's gonna be thrilled about that." "You could stay at my mom's." "My mom always liked you." "You know that." "She's still got our prom pictures up." "That's another reason why Sam's not so crazy about you." "She knows I still think about you." "And she knows we're probably gonna move on." "But you didn't do it, Jessie." "Not you showing up right now." "It's just weird timing is all." "All right." "I'm gonna get you out of here." "Ready?" "Yeah." "Excuse me." "All right, let's get you packed." "Would you grab me that bag?" "Yeah." "Here you go." "Thank you." "I'll get this over here." "Preston?" "All right." "Be right back." "You ready?" "All right." "Preston?" "Preston?" "Oh!" "Preston!" "Your boyfriend is in shock, but his blood pressure is okay." "He should be fine when he comes to, but they're running him to the hospital just to be safe." "He's not my boyfriend." "We were just friends from high school." "Miss Laurent, do you mind telling me what the hell's going on here?" "We don't have the results back on the DNA yet." "But that infant we found, we do know was a female." "The date on her gravestone was probably about right." "Well, then was she a stillborn?" "No, she wasn't." "She was born alive." "They know that." "Then she was murdered." "What?" "From the nature of the fractures and the splintering of the vertebrae, it seems like somebody just picked her up and snapped her over his knee like a piece of firewood." "She was murdered." "Miss Laurent, I don't know what the hell is going on around here, but clearly, you are one very frightened young woman." "She doesn't want to hurt us." "What?" "She needs our help." "Who?" "Uh..." "Sheriff, would you mind calling me when Preston wakes up, please?" "All right." "Please call me when you know he's all right." "All right." "I know you were murdered." "What are you trying to tell me?" "Who were you?" "Please, I wanna help you." "Who are you?" "Jessabelle." "What do you want from me?" "Hello?" "Hello?" "It'sSheriffPruitt." "Yourboyfriend'scometo." "Heseemsallright." "Ithought you'dwannaknow." "Oh, he's all right?" "Theparamedics saidheshouldrest." "Hewon'tevengo tothehospital foranexam." "Hewantsme to takehim  backoutto thehouse toprotectyou fromsomething." "Doyouknow whatthatis ?" "Sheriff, I can barely hear you." "MissLaurent,we also justgottheresultsback  fromtheDNAtest." "Thatdeceasedbabygirl thatyoudugupwasblack ." "What did you say?" "She was black?" "I don't understand." "Does that mean she was my half-sister?" "TheycrossedyourDNA  withyourfather's, withLeon's..." "What?" "That'syoucrying." "You'recrying 'causeyou'rescared." "Youdon'tknowwhereyouare." "Youdon'tknowwho you are ." "Youdon'tknowshit!" "I'mgonnatellyou  whoyouare." "Becausethat'swhat goodmothersdo ." "Jessabelle,you'redead." "Yourfather'sdead." "Moses." "No,it'sallgonnabe allright,isn'tit?" "Ineedyou,sugar." "Ineedyou." "Goodgirl ." "You'regonnacomeback." "I'mgonnaholdthe door openforyou." "Jessabelle, you'regonnaget what'scomingto you!" "The unwanted presence in the house." "Whenyouseeit,  it'sbroken,right?" "It wasn't the ghost." "It was me." "Youweretelling someoneelse'sfortune, weren'tyou?" "Youknowwhatitsays here ?" "Itsaysthatyou 've neverleftSt.Francis andthatyou're nevergonnaleave." "Your real daughter, not me." "You gave your life for Jessabelle." "Didn't do chemo." "When the baby was born, it wasn't Dad's." "No, no!" "He killed her, didn't he?" "Mosestaughtme  howtoreadcards." "Look at those." "Don'ttellDad." "He'dkillme ." "So Leon adopted a baby girl to cover the crime?" "A white girl, me." "Your church, Moses' church." "Get out." "They gave her the grave." "What do you want from me?" "What can I do?" "Moses." "What are you doing?" "Payback." "What?" "No!" "No." "It's not my fault!" "Somebody!" "Help!" "No!" "What do you want from me?" "All Jessabelle wants is what's coming to her." "Somebody!" "No!" "No!" "Let me go!" "What is..." "No, no, no!" "No!" "Please don't." "Where are you taking me?" "No, God!" "Please." "Please!" "Jessie!" "Please!" "Help me!" "No!" "God!" "Oh, my God!" "Hold on." "Hold on." "You all right?" "I thought I lost you." "Take me home, my love." "Miss Laurent?" "Are you all right?" "Miss Laurent!" "It's Jessabelle."