At noon, Cordelia gathered the young witches for their first formal meeting of the day.
Charlie had already unpacked his belongings and cleaned his room, so he went downstairs to the kitchen and offered to help Spalding prepare the pastries.
The old servant rejected him with a cold stare and an impatient wave of his hand.
With no one else nearby, Spalding made no effort to hide his displeasure over Charlie’s arrival.
He had served the Coven for years and clearly viewed the younger man as a threat to his position.
Since Spalding had no family or apprentice to inherit his responsibilities, Cordelia had decided that the academy needed someone who could eventually replace him.
Charlie leaned against the counter and watched the servant work.
Maybe you should have trained a successor instead of spending your free time dressing like one of your dolls.
Spalding’s obsession with dolls was strange even by the standards of a house filled with witches.
Charlie knew enough about the man’s private habits to avoid being alone in his attic whenever possible.
Still, Spalding’s hostility did not bother him.
Charlie had never dreamed of spending his second life carrying trays and cleaning up after spoiled witches.
If the old servant wanted to handle every task himself, Charlie was perfectly willing to let him.
He took out his phone and settled into a chair near the kitchen wall.
Spalding glanced at him several times while mixing the pastry filling, and the corners of his mouth twitched when he realized his new assistant had no intention of volunteering again.
Once the food was ready, Spalding placed everything on a silver tray and carried it toward the dining room without asking for help.
Charlie watched him leave, shrugged, and returned his attention to the phone.
He had not forgotten the Book of Containment’s requirement.
Within ten days, he needed to capture at least one supernatural entity.
Charlie searched for New Orleans ghost stories, unexplained deaths, haunted buildings, and local legends.
Although he knew the city from Mardi Gras celebrations, jazz music, and football, his knowledge of its supernatural history came almost entirely from movies and television.
New Orleans was often described as one of the most haunted cities in America.
Its long history, old cemeteries, abandoned buildings, epidemics, fires, and violent crimes had created countless stories about spirits that refused to leave.
Some of those legends were tourist attractions.
Others concealed genuine supernatural activity.
One of the most famous figures associated with the city was Marie Laveau, the legendary Voodoo Queen of New Orleans.
Tourists often visited a tomb believed to be connected to her in St.
Louis Cemetery No.
1 and marked nearby surfaces with three Xs while asking for favors.
Most of those rituals were meaningless.
Charlie knew the truth.
The real Marie Laveau had never died.
She remained alive through magic and currently operated the Cornrow City beauty salon in the Ninth Ward.
She was also the leader of New Orleans’ Voodoo practitioners and had spent generations fighting the Salem witches.
Charlie was already nervous about living beneath the same roof as the Coven, so provoking the Voodoo Queen would be an excellent way to make his life even shorter.
Marie Laveau was immediately removed from his list of possible targets.
However, the city’s cemeteries still interested him.
St.
Louis Cemetery No.
1, Lafayette Cemetery No.
1, and several smaller burial grounds were surrounded by stories of apparitions, moving shadows, and voices coming from sealed tombs.
There were even scattered reports of pale figures seen near the cemetery gates after dark.
Some witnesses claimed they were vampires, while others believed they were grave robbers or drug users hiding among the tombs.
Charlie could not confirm whether any of those stories were real, but the cemeteries were worth investigating.
If he found a weak ghost or another minor supernatural presence, he might be able to complete his first assignment without risking his life.
He continued scrolling.
The LaLaurie Mansion was another famous location connected to New Orleans’ darkest history.
Madame Delphine LaLaurie had tortured enslaved people inside the house before disappearing after a fire exposed her crimes.
In this world, however, Delphine LaLaurie had not escaped or died.
Marie Laveau had cursed her with immortality and buried her alive.
The infamous woman remained trapped somewhere beneath the city until the events Charlie remembered from American Horror Story: Coven brought her back into the world.
Targeting Delphine was impossible for now.
Charlie did not know where she had been buried, and interfering with her fate could attract the attention of both Marie Laveau and Fiona Goode.
Neither outcome appealed to him.
The Axeman of New Orleans was another possibility.
The real killer had terrorized the city between 1918 and 1919.
He became famous for a letter claiming that he would spare any home playing jazz on a particular night, which led to music filling the city while terrified families waited for dawn.
His human identity had never been confirmed.
In the hidden history of the Coven, the witches of Miss Robichaux’s Academy had lured him into the mansion and stabbed him to death.
His spirit remained trapped inside the school for decades, hidden even from most of the women living there.
Charlie knew where the Axeman’s ghost was located, but that did not make him a safe target.
The spirit was violent, cunning, and strong enough to threaten experienced witches after being released.
The academy’s students would eventually summon him through a spirit board.
If Charlie became desperate, he could manipulate that event or ask Zoe to help draw the ghost out.
For now, the Axeman remained a last resort.
Charlie searched for other possibilities.
He found stories about the Rougarou prowling the Louisiana swamps, strange creatures around Honey Island, haunted hotels in the French Quarter, vampire sightings, cursed restaurants, and abandoned plantations where visitors heard chains moving through empty rooms.
The problem was separating real supernatural activity from exaggerated tourist stories.
He saved several locations on his phone and arranged them into a rough route.
The cemeteries and public haunted sites would be easier to investigate first, while the swamps and isolated buildings would require transportation, equipment, and someone capable of protecting him.
After finishing his research, Charlie opened the refrigerator and found a prepared sandwich.
He ate while considering the most important part of his plan.
Even if he discovered a supernatural target, he still needed a way to fight it.
Crosses, holy water, blessed objects, and passages from the Bible appeared in almost every American horror movie involving demons or spirits.
Charlie was not religious, but dismissing tools that might work would be foolish.
He could visit a nearby church, speak with a priest, and obtain several basic items.
A cross and Bible would be easy to find, while holy water could be requested or prepared by the clergy.
Whether any of them would affect the supernatural beings in this world remained uncertain.
Still, carrying them would make Charlie feel better than confronting a ghost with empty hands.
Spiritual defenses alone would not be enough.
Some supernatural creatures possessed physical bodies, and against those enemies the traditional American solution was simple.
Firepower.
Bullets might not destroy every monster, but they could slow down anything that still relied on flesh, bone, or internal organs.
A firearm would also protect him from ordinary criminals while he searched through abandoned buildings and cemeteries.
Most importantly, Charlie needed a partner.
No amount of equipment could change the fact that he had never fought anyone seriously.
He had not killed an animal, entered a dangerous building, or faced anything more threatening than a bad driver before arriving in this world.
Charging into a haunted location alone would be suicide.
Fortunately, he now lived with several witches.
One of them was his girlfriend, and the others might be persuaded to help if he offered the right excuse.
Considering what would soon happen around the academy, Charlie already had someone in mind.
His eyes brightened as the beginnings of a plan took shape.
That afternoon, Cordelia taught Zoe and the other girls about witchcraft and the history of the Coven.
Spalding returned to his private attic, where he changed into an oversized childlike outfit and continued his disturbing doll games.
With no work assigned to him, Charlie collected the few hundred dollars left in the original body’s savings and left the academy.
He followed the directions on his phone toward a nearby gun store.
New Orleans had struggled with violent crime for years, especially in neighborhoods affected by poverty, poor infrastructure, corruption, and the long recovery following Hurricane Katrina.
Residents responded in different ways, and some chose to keep firearms for personal protection.
That demand supported a large number of gun stores and shooting ranges throughout the area.
When Charlie entered one, the owner was showing a father and his young son a youth-sized .22-caliber rifle.
The weapon was not being sold directly to the child.
The father was considering it for supervised target practice and hunting once the boy was old enough and properly trained.
The original Charlie’s memories made the scene feel ordinary.
Firearms had been part of American culture for generations, although the reality involved far more paperwork and restrictions than foreign movies often suggested.
Behind the counter, racks displayed pistols, hunting rifles, shotguns, and civilian semiautomatic rifles.
He also saw several expensive precision rifles and tactical models locked behind glass.
The heavier weapons immediately caught his attention.
A rifle or twelve-gauge shotgun would provide far more stopping power against a physical monster, but Charlie needed something he could conceal beneath his clothing and carry while moving through the city.
His limited budget also ruled out most of the weapons he truly wanted.
He focused on the handgun display.
After comparing several models, Charlie selected a Glock 17.
The pistol used 9×19mm ammunition and carried seventeen rounds in its standard magazine.
It was reliable, durable, easy to maintain, and common enough that replacement parts and ammunition would not be difficult to find.
The manageable recoil also made it a more practical choice than an oversized handgun chosen only for appearance.
Charlie briefly examined a powerful large-caliber pistol in the display case before returning it to the clerk.
Such a weapon looked impressive in action movies, but the price, recoil, weight, and limited magazine capacity made it a poor choice for an inexperienced shooter.
He needed something he could control under pressure.
The original Charlie had previously completed firearms training and possessed the identification required for the purchase.
The store still processed the necessary federal paperwork and background check before releasing the handgun.
Charlie negotiated over the price of the accessories and spent almost all his remaining savings.
In the end, he left the counter with the Glock 17, six magazines, defensive ammunition, a locking case, and a concealed holster.
The shop had a small indoor range behind the sales floor.
Charlie rented a lane, put on hearing and eye protection, and fired two magazines at a paper target.
His first shots spread across the outer rings.
The weapon’s recoil and explosive report felt different from the memories inside his head, but his movements gradually became steadier.
By the end of the second magazine, most of his rounds landed near the center of the target.
Charlie was far from an expert.
Still, the original body’s experience gave him a useful foundation.
With regular practice, he could become competent enough to defend himself at close range.
He reloaded the magazines, secured the Glock in its holster, and covered it with his shirt before leaving the store.
His next destination was a neighborhood Catholic church several blocks away.
Charlie entered with the respectful expression of someone searching for spiritual guidance.
He spoke with an older priest, listened to a lengthy explanation about faith, evil, and the importance of not treating sacred objects like charms from a horror movie.
The priest appeared suspicious of Charlie’s sudden interest but did not send him away.
After nearly an hour of conversation, he gave Charlie a small wooden crucifix, a pocket-sized Bible, and a sealed bottle of holy water.
Charlie made a modest donation with the last of his cash.
At his request, the priest blessed the cross and Bible before advising him to return for Sunday Mass if his concern about evil was genuine.
Whether the blessing carried supernatural power was impossible to determine.
The Book of Containment did not react to any of the objects, but Charlie felt more prepared with them in his possession.
He carefully placed the Bible, crucifix, and holy water inside his bag and started walking back toward Miss Robichaux’s Academy.
Between the firearm and the religious items, he had completed the first stage of his preparations.
Weapons alone would not guarantee his survival.
The most important part of his plan was still waiting at the academy.
Charlie needed a supernatural partner.