From the Dark Past

Project Elysium

Suffering from writers’ block, as she had been for close to a year now, sixty-year-old hopeful author Sabella Laaksonen was listening to an album called Project Elysium that her friend Tio Monday had given her, hoping to find inspiration in the lyrics. Tio described the music as “a gang of Cajun and Creole tunesmiths jammin’ by whatever dey has on hand. Every cat and chick on de Paradise label is on dis album. You gonna hear Rey play de organ and yours truly got his hands on a Qilaut. Dis be a drum from Iceland. It got a handle for carryin’, so I be jumpin’ all around and keepin’ de beat! Now, I warn dat I do not necessarily keep de time like a metronome, but what I lacks in rhythm I makes up for in merriment, yes ma’am.”

Sabella smiled at Tio’s enthusiasm. However, her amusement at her friend’s exuberance was tempered by the knowledge that part of him was always wishing that each day would be the day that he would take the last steps in his current incarnation and at last go to join the beloved brother who had been dead for exactly as many days as Sabella had been alive.

“I let you go to your writin’ now, Miss Sabella, an’ I go home and try an’ sleep afore de witchin’ hour. But if I ain’t able to sleep, I has me a new recipe for Sunday Supper Club. Dat sucker Gene ain’t gonna be able to tease me dat I can only make a cake from de box no more. I find me a recipe for a sour cream fruit tart dat don’t look too difficult-like, an’ I’m gonna try it. If I ain’t fixin’ to spit it out after a bite, I’ll let you try too.”

“I’m sure it will be wonderful, Tio,” Sabella encouraged. “And if you don’t make it tonight, come by tomorrow afternoon and we can try making it together.”

“You gots yourself a deal, Miss Sabella,” Tio agreed. “I shall see you tomorrow, either with a sour cream tart or wit de makings for a sour cream tart, yes ma’am.”

Ledford Saunders

Since her muse wasn’t cooperating, Sabella decided to read the roster of musicians taking part in Project Elysium. Many of them, including Rey and Sol Monday, were dead. Others had disappeared into obscurity. Sabella decided to write a book commemorating the individuals involved with the Project. She had nothing but time now, and they deserved to be remembered.

One of the many names in the roster gave Sabella a start for reasons she couldn’t explain.

Ledford “Leadfoot” Saunders: Management Magick and Vibraphone Voodoo

Sabella typed “Ledford Saunders” into the Wikipedia search box.

Born

4 May 1896 Lake Charles, Louisiana, U.S.

Origin

New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.

Died

6 June 1966 Miami, Florida, U.S. (Age 70)

Genres

Big Band, Blues, Country, Doo-Wop, Jazz, Ragtime, Rock, Swing

Occupation(s)

Manager, musician, race car driver, record producer, songwriter, sound engineer

Instruments

Bass fiddle, bass guitar, drums, guitar, harmonica, piano, vibraphone, vocals

Years Active

1914 – 1966

Labels

Knight, Severus, Black Cat, Paradise, Eagle

Associated Acts

Blue Mondays, The Graces, The Journeymen, Night Prowlers, The Oneiromancers, Queens of Paradise, Sentinels of Heaven, Youngblood

Ledford Deion “Leadfoot” Saunders began his music career after winning a ragtime piano contest on his fourteenth birthday. The grand prize was a set of kitchen knives, which pleased the young Saunders, who was hoping to earn his living as a cook.

Saunders performed big band, jazz, and ragtime music between 1910 and 1950. He started racing cars in 1916 and earned the nickname “Leadfoot” both for his fast driving and his driving bass drumbeats. In 1930, he helped found the New Orleans-based Paradise record label. Saunders performed in the capacity of sound engineer and studio musician and in the capacity of manager for several of the label’s acts.

Saunders never married and had no children of his own. However, when his friends and fellow musicians Nina Hardaway and Warren Emerson were killed in a car accident on 8 October 1938, orphaning their daughter Dionne Nike Emerson (9 April 1930 – 1 November 1960), Saunders became Dionne’s guardian.

Warren Emerson’s father was Lord Alan Emerson of Kingston on Thames and his mother was Lady Idunn Emerson, while Nina Hardaway’s father was Lord Arthur Hardaway of Cheshire and her mother was Lady Shae Hardaway. Nina and Warren had been disowned by their families, who paid Saunders to raise the child quietly in the United States, out of sight of their fellow English nobility.

Saunders went into a decline following the murders of his goddaughter Dionne and his friend and client, Reymund Monday (31 October 1925 – 1 November 1960) of the blues-rock band Blue Mondays. Saunders’ decomposing body was found by a tour guide in the Everglades twenty days after his disappearance on 12 May 1966. The coroner discovered eighteen marks on the skeleton that he believed to have been made by knives rather than animal teeth. The coroner theorized that Saunders was murdered by multiple assailants. No suspects have ever been named.

Dionne Emerson

The Wikipedia entry for Dionne Emerson read:

Born

9 April 1930 Gloucestershire, United Kingdom

Died

1 November 1960 Eagle, Vermont, U.S.

Occupation

Manager, Singer, Songwriter, Sound Engineer

Genres

Blues, Jazz, Rock

Instruments

Piano, Tambourine, Vibraphone, Vocals

Years Active

1954 – 1960

Labels

Paradise, Eagle

Associated Acts

Blue Mondays

Dionne Nike Emerson was the daughter of big band, jazz, and swing multi-instrumentalist Warren Emerson and big band, jazz, and swing vocalist Nina Hardaway. She was orphaned when her parents were killed in an auto accident on 8 October 1938.

Dionne’s parents were offspring of English nobility who had been disowned by their families. Neither family wanted any part of raising the child and paid Louisiana authorities to look the other way, allowing her to be raised by her godfather, Ledford Saunders, a prominent black musician, and one-time race car driver.

Following her graduation from high school, Dionne was educated at the prestigious Manhattan College for the Performing Arts. She graduated in 1952 and began her career as an executive assistant in New York. She despised being a Girl Friday and when Paradise built a second studio in the remote village of Eagle, Vermont, Dionne begged her godfather to let her work with him.

Controversy

Dionne began an affair with Reymund Monday of the blues-rock band Blue Mondays not long after her arrival at Eagle Studios in 1955. Rey Monday was married to fellow Paradise artist Beatha Uberto. Sources claim that Monday only married Uberto so that authorities would not deport her and her daughter Odilia (4 May 1950 – 6 May 1978). The move to Vermont was made because Monday was white and Uberto was black, and the marriage would have been illegal in Louisiana.

Rey’s loveless marriage to Beatha and his affair with Dionne Emerson were open secrets. He did not press Beatha for a divorce until Dionne revealed at the Eagle Studios Halloween Party that she was pregnant with Rey’s child.

Tio describes the resulting confrontation between Beatha and Rey as “World War III.” By the time the party wrapped up, Dionne and Rey were nowhere to be found. Police told Tio and Solomon Monday that the couple had probably run off to Mexico to get married. Sol and Tio argued that Rey wouldn’t have left without telling them and that Dionne would have called her godfather to tell him not to worry.

Dionne and Rey’s bodies were discovered in Dark Lake a week later, exsanguinated and bearing multiple puncture wounds. Police discovered the message “Mormo punishes adulterers” scrawled in blood on Rey Monday’s bathroom mirror along with several unidentifiable words and symbols. Judge Dragan Ness (12 January 1923 – 4 March 1991) determined that the blood was Beatha Uberto’s menstrual blood and declared her incompetent to stand trial, sentencing her to a period of one year in Olkoth Sanitarium in Turura, Florida. Tio Monday spent three days in jail for calling the judge an agent of evil who had been bought and paid for.

Beatha Uberto

Sabella read the Wikipedia entry for Beatha Uberto, whom she believed was involved in the death of Rey Monday and Dionne Emerson. The word “sorceress” popped into Sabella’s mind upon seeing Beatha’s picture. Even in the black-and-white photograph dated 6 June 1956, the woman’s eyes smoldered like dark lava. She had long, straight, coal-black hair, a flawless, swarthy complexion, and foxlike features.

Born

8 September 1910 Port Au Prince, Haiti

Origin

New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.

Died

4 May 2006 Qana, Egypt

Occupation

Musician

Genres

Big Band, Blues, Jazz, Rock, Swing

Instruments

Drums, Piano, Tambourine, Vocals

Years Active

1925 – 1960, 1962 – 2006

Labels

Paradise, Eagle, Turura

Beatha Byagoona Uberto was the daughter of Alfarsi Uberto (8 December 1880 – 20 January 1920), a defrocked Franciscan friar excommunicated from the order for blasphemous conduct. Uberto was notorious for creating sculptures so shocking that their appearance caused some viewers to scream or faint. Uberto was unwelcome both in his father’s native Italy and his mother’s native Persia. He immigrated to Haiti, where he met Saraswati Vile-Oct (4 May 1886 – 7 August 1989), an Indian sculptor who had similarly been exiled from her home country for her “unpleasant and blasphemous creations.”

Controversies

Beatha had a daughter named Odilia (4 May 1950 – 6 May 1978), who was fathered by her second cousin, Fabien Mill (12 January 1912 – 3 April 1956). Beatha and Mill never married, so although Mill was a naturalized American citizen, Beatha was not. Fearing that she and her daughter would be deported to Haiti, Beatha convinced fellow musician Reymund Monday (31 October 1925 – 1 November 1960) to marry her so she could remain in the United States. New Orleans-based Paradise Records opened a studio in Eagle, Vermont so their star performers could marry. Rey Monday was Caucasian and Beatha Uberto was a black woman of mixed heritage. Their union would have been illegal in Louisiana in the 1950s.

Although the marriage was in name only, Beatha became incensed when Rey struck up a romantic relationship with Dionne Emerson (9 April 1930 – 1 November 1960), the goddaughter of studio manager Ledford Saunders. There were rumors that a vengeful Beatha murdered Rey and Dionne with the help of fellow Paradise musicians Laban Offermans (b. 8 September 1931), Zaal Pitt (10 July 1918 – 9 April 1965), and Oro Lascius (b. 1 February 1930).

Beatha was declared unfit to stand trial by Judge Dragan Ness (12 January 1923 – 4 March 1991) after painting “Mormo punishes adulterers” along with various incomprehensible words and symbols on Rey Monday’s bathroom mirror using her menstrual blood. Ness also dismissed the cases against Lascius, Offermans, and Pitt, citing a lack of evidence. Rey’s brother Tio Monday was sentenced to three days in jail for his outburst following the Judge’s ruling.

Beatha’s daughter Odilia’s body was found in a swamp outside New Orleans on 23 May 1978. Beatha reported Odilia missing on 6 May 1978. The death was ruled foul play. Toxicology reports revealed the presence of opiates in Odilia’s system. She had been stabbed eight times through the chest and torso and eight times through the back in a deliberate pattern. There were puncture wounds through the forehead and back of the skull as well. The presence of water in the lungs suggested that Odilia was alive when her body was submerged into the swamp. No suspects were ever named in the case.

A Voice from the Past

A sudden gust of wind caused the curtains to flap, startling Sabella. She gave a startled cry and hurried to close the window. Rain began to beat down outside.

“A night such as this, it was a stormy night such as this. Rain turned to ice and fell to the ground like knives. The bodies froze as they sank in the lake while the supplicants writhed on the shore like snakes,” a voice whispered in Sabella’s mind.

“What the hell?” Sabella demanded. “Where is this coming from?”

“Don’t worry on where it come from, Darlin’. Write it down!”

Sabella obeyed. It didn’t take much speculation to realize that the voice belonged to Rey Monday, the man who built the house she now lived in and whose bloodless body had been found in the lake less than a quarter-mile away on the night she was born.

“Why do ghosts always talk in riddles?” Sabella muttered, shivering as she pulled on a sweater. “I know you were murdered, Rey. Why don’t you just come out and say who did it?”

“Already you know who do, but you ain’t want to remember. Truth be told, I ain’t want you to remember me or dat night. But your soul hungry for truth, an’ keepin’ you in de dark put you in danger. So, we gonna help each other, Love, but I try to not give you more information den you can handle.”

“I’m not sure how I can remember an incident I wasn’t present for,” Sabella retorted.

“You was dere, Darlin’.”

“Well, your brother can blame you when I grill him the next time I see him. Tio’s obviously been keeping me in the dark too.”

“Can’t blame Tio too much, now, chere. Him always da sort of fella who wanna keep de peace. Truth be, Tio very exited to tell you everyting him know. But how you tink you react if de first day you meet, him up and say ‘You done lived here in Eagle in your past life, Miss Sabella. You and me worked together, and we was friends. Well, truth be, Tio ready to up and blurt dat out. Even at de advanced age of ninety-tree, him ain’t no more dan an overgrown kid. I done tell him dat he oughta rein it in. So, do me a favor, Darlin’. When Tio show up wit de fixins to make a sour cream tart tomorrow, you gotta ease into dis conversation ‘stead of jumpin’ on him.”

The Story of Dora

 “If I jumped on Tio, I’d kill him,” Sabella quipped. “He’s no bigger than a dormouse. I was acquainted with a dormouse, you know. I’ll have to tell him about that. I first saw a dormouse in the small animal house at the El Paso Zoo, and a month later, my old friends Dion and Shaquille received one on their fourteenth birthday from a relative who had been to Europe. Dion and Shack were twins, you see.

“The dormouse was a girl, and they named her Dora. They fed her rodent food that they got from the pet store, and she had a happy life with them. Dormice don’t live long, though, and it was impossible to say how old Dora was when she was given to the boys. She died a year later.

“Shaquille was sad about Dora’s demise, but he was realistic about the longevity or lack thereof of such creatures. Dion, however, was heartbroken. He doted on Dora while she was alive, and he made a beautiful little coffin for her from a wooden matchbox. Do you know, when he and Shaquille moved to Mexico City to open their restaurant, Dion hoped that Dora would forgive him for leaving her behind. Shaquille told his brother that they weren’t leaving Dora behind, because she was an angel now and would follow them and watch over them wherever in the world they went. So, if you ever see a dormouse angel, please tell her hello from me.”

“I will do dat, Darlin’,” Rey promised. “And now I have two favors to ask from you.”

“Name them. I promise to do whatever I can to help.”

“Well, first I want you to tell Tio dat dare dormouse story. Him a big kid at heart, yes ma’am. Him gonna love dat tale. Second, already you know dat my brother am an artist. Ain’t me what drawn dat illustrated story you found, no ma’am. I come up wit part of de plot, and I done most of de editing on de story, but Tio be de one who drawn it. He told me where to fill in wit ink and such ‘cause he didn’t want me to feel left out, but him didn’t need my help.

“What I’m getting ‘round to is dis. I know y’all wants to write a book ‘bout de Paradise Studios musicians, and I appreciates dat. I know such a book is gonna be of interest for a certain kind of crowd. But if you writes down your dormouse story and Tio illustrates it, you gonna have a classic on your hands, yes ma’am! Only y’all needs to tell him to do de drawings in colored pencils. Even colored ink would do, but it can’t be no pure black ink. Everyting him draw in only black ink turn out gloomy!”

“I’ll tell him, Rey, and thank you so much! I know some ghosts like to be seen as spooky, but if you’re one of them, I’m afraid you aren’t spooky at all. You’re very sweet, and I’m glad you decided to open up to me and let me help you. I’m going to tell your story and I’ll work on the dormouse story with Tio.”

Acknowledgements

“From the Dark Past” is a song copyright 1994 by the band Mayhem.

Olkoth is a demonic entity appearing in a Call of Cthulhu campaign on the French website http://www.tentacules.net/

Turura is a fungoid entity introduced in the Call of Cthulhu game scenario "Utatti Asfet"

Byagoona is the creation of James Ambuehl and is introduced in his story “The Bane of Byagoona.”

http://www.templeofdagon.com/writers/james-ambuehl/the-bane-of-byagoona/

Vile-Oct is a Dragonoid or reptilian entity possibly related to Yig. I found the name on the Wikipedia Cthulhu Mythos Deities page, which does not provide a source for it. I like the description of the entity, which I presume to be a creation from a Call of Cthulhu campaign. Credit for Vile-Oct goes to its creator.