by Ocean
Zeolie’s screeches snapped the Mambo from her trance and caused her to pause momentarily in the recital of the words. She glared at Devin, but continued chanting, “Suda senturwanie. Suba. Suba!”
A boisterous laugh erupted from the creature. It was a laugh unlike any that Rosie had ever heard, and with each second that ticked by, it grew louder. It was a laugh heavy with evil, and it pierced her soul. It was as if this monster’s expression of delight somehow infiltrated the molecules of all things.
“Rosie, hurry!” Devin’s voice was strained. Rosie glanced back and saw Devin was having trouble containing the rat. The animal was almost as big as she was, and it now crawled in Rosie’s direction, dragging Devin with it. Rosie climbed onto the shelf where the tiny black book was and reached for it. Just as her miniature doll fingers touched the leather cover, Devin screamed, “Rosie! Watch out!”
Zeolie had escaped from Devin. Rosie turned in time to see the rat spring airborne, toward her. She held the book up, spread open as a shield toward the animal. The momentum of the rat knocked her, the rat and the book off the bookshelf. As she fell, the last few words of the Mambo’s chant rang in her ears.
“Nah-wunto-go. Return to where you came. AWA! AWA!” The Mambo screamed the final words as if she were yelling to the entire universe.
Before Rosie hit the ground, the room and everything in it swirled. With one hand she clutched the book, with the other, she tried to grab onto something, anything, but everything was gone. She blinked but could see nothing.
The last thing Rosie heard was Devin screaming her name.
Then everything went dark.
21
Curses, foiled again
The Mambo lowered her staff and turned toward her beloved pet. Zeolie lay on the floor, dazed from the fall but appeared to be okay. The dolls were gone. That had been her intent. But the book disappearing, that had not been planned.
“Curses,” she muttered.
“Where have you sent them?” the monstrous creature demanded.
“As if I’d tell you,” the Mambo sneered.
It sniffed several times through the slits that were nostrils and flickered its tongue as if tasting the air.
“There’s no need for you to tell me anything. As long as they have the book, and they’re going to find their bodies, they’ll lead me to Ria and Naomi.”
Before the Mambo could respond, the creature released a loud cry of ecstasy and began spinning. Within seconds, the wind died down and it was gone.
The Mambo crossed the room, picked up Zeolie and comforted the whimpering animal.
22
We got the book, now what?
Rosie landed on her back with a ‘thud’ and felt as if she were a discarded doll that’d been tossed, and indeed, she was.
“Ouch,” she groaned as she struggled to sit up. Devin lay beside her. She was motionless. Her eyes were closed.
“Devin.” Rosie nudged her.
Devin didn’t move.
“Devin?!” Rosie pushed harder this time.
Devin’s eyes popped open. She stared straight up. Her body didn’t move, only her eyes and lips.
“Where are we?” The words were grunted more than spoken.
Rosie glanced around. There was the huge banyan tree with the many thin vines hanging from it and Mambo Cielo’s hut nearly buried by overgrown vegetation. They were on the well-traveled, deeply rutted path that the fortune teller had followed on her bike to bring them there. A plane flew overhead, its shape silhouette against the moon.
“We’re at Mambo Cielo’s hut. It looks like we’re back in our own time. The least she could’ve done is to send us back to the U.S.”
One of Devin’s shoes had come off, and she struggled to put it back on.
“Damn. How’d they get these stupid shoes on, anyway?”
“Dev,” Rosie said. “What do you suppose that was back there?”
“I can’t say for sure, but it certainly looked like Satan to me,” Devin said. She’d managed to get the shoe on and was brushing herself off.
“Yeah, me too,” Rosie said.
Rosie looked down. On her lap, still cradled in her hands, was a small, black book.
“Devin. Look. The book!”
Devin jumped up.
“Oh, my goodness.” She slapped Rosie on the back. “You got it! You got the book!”
Rosie stared at what her hands clasped. Even though she held it, she was afraid to move. Afraid of the power it possessed, of the secrets it held.
Slowly, gently, she lifted a hand and stroked the cover. It was made from the smoothest leather she’d ever felt. She ran a finger along the gold lettering splashed across the spine.
“What does it say?” Devin leaned in closer to get a better look at the book. Her voice was next to Rosie’s ear.
Rosie turned her head. Devin was only a couple inches from her.
“You can’t read that?”
Devin shook her head.
“It says, ‘Spells, Curses, and Incantations’,” Rosie said.
Her fingers traced the symbol that was embossed on the cover. It was four triangles interlocking and spread one on-top of the other. The triangles shared a common apex at the bottom and converged in the iris of an eye. Across the top were symbols of what looked like a comet, a moon and stars.
“What do you think it means?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Open it and see if you can find something that’ll reverse the curse,” Devin said.
Rosie flipped open the cover. Several of the first pages were missing.
“Look, they’ve been torn out. Zeolie must’ve got some pages,” she said then continued to flip through the book.
“Spell to bring good luck. Spell to produce a better harvest. Spell to bring someone back from the dead. Eww.” The thought of bringing someone back from the dead caused her to shiver. “I wonder if their bodies would be decomposed or if–”
“Rosie, keep reading,” Devin elbowed her.
“Spell to freeze someone. Awesome, look! Spell to talk to animals. Spell to make someone tell the truth.”
“Those are spells,” Devin motioned with her hands. “Get to the part with the curses.”
Rosie turned several more pages.
“Here they are. Curses. Curse to give someone bad luck. Curse to cause blindness. Curse to kill someone’s horse. Aww. These are evil.” She kept reading. “Curse of the mummy. I don’t even want to know what that is.”
Devin patted her back.
“Keep reading.”
“Curse to turn a person into a creature. Curse of the damned. There it is Devin!” She was amazed at how high-pitched her voice was.
Devin leaned in closer.
“Does it say how to reverse it?”
Rosie read out loud.
“For the curse not to last, say the last word first and the first word last.”
“What does that mean?” Devin asked.
Rosie repeated the words, slower this time.
“For the curse not to last, say the last word first and the first word last.”
She looked up from the book and peered at Devin.
“I think it means that to undo the curse, we have to repeat it backward.”
“Say it backward? That’s it? That’s all we had to do is repeat the curse backward?”
“Makes sense. Reverse the curse. Say it backward.”
“Why didn’t we think of that sooner?” Devin said.
“I don’t know. Let me think. Why wouldn’t I think of a way to reverse a curse?” Rosie tapped a finger against her cheek. “Maybe because I’d never been cursed before?”
Devin shot her a look that included a head tilt.
“You’d think they would’ve made it a bit more complicated.” Rosie glanced back down toward the book. “Wait. There’s more.”
She continued reading. “To place the soul tight to where it belongs, hold on tight to that to which it longs.” Rosie slapped the page “I ha
te riddles. Why can’t they just say what they mean?”
“Okay, calm down. Let’s think about it, Rosie. ‘To place the soul tight to where it belongs.’ That means, to make sure you get the soul back in the right place, right?”
Rosie nodded. “I guess.”
“Okay.” Devin’s tiny doll fingers scratched her head, a habit Rosie had often seen her do when she was thinking. “Hold on tight…to that…to which it longs.’ I think it means hold on to something that the body you’re putting the soul into longs for. Something it wants. Does that make sense?”
“I guess it makes sense,” Rosie said. “I mean, you have to make sure you get the soul back into the right body. What if you said the reverse curse, and the soul popped into the wrong body?”
“Right! We got this.” Devin held her tiny doll fist toward Rosie and they bumped knuckles.
Devin kept talking.
“All we have to do now is find those two creeps, hold on to something of theirs, I mean of ours, say the reverse curse and boom! We’re back in our own bodies.”
“You make it sound so easy.” Rosie closed the book and held it tightly against her chest. “Did you forget that in a couple hours the sun will come up, we’ll be frozen until nightfall. Not to mention, we’re short, little, dolls and somehow have to get back to the U.S. and find Ria and Naomi. Who knows where they are right now? They could be anywhere.”
“You forgot to mention the part about Satan being after us,” Devin said.
“Oh geez, right! And now Satan himself is after us,” Rosie said.
“No one ever said it would be easy.” Devin plopped back onto the ground next to Rosie.
“I don’t suppose you can call your father and try to explain? Maybe ask him to send his private jet to help us out? Just this one time. Or maybe a credit card?”
Devin laughed. “Oh right, I’m sure he’d believe that I ended up on a haunted island with a bunch of cursed dolls and that one of them sucked out my soul and traded places with me. Oh, and now I’m stuck in Cuba in a miniature, plastic body of a nun.”
“Don’t think he’d believe you, huh?”
“No. Especially not with a voice that sounds like a dog’s squeaky toy.”
Rosie chuckled. “Yeah, you do kind of sound like a dog’s squeaky toy.” Suddenly she sat up straight. “Dog! Devin! I forgot about Itchy! What day is it? I think today is the day I was supposed to go home. I have to get a message to my friends that I’m not coming home today so they’ll take care of her.” A thought occurred to her. “Dev. Do you think I’ll ever make it home and see Itchy again? Tell me the truth.”
“Yes, of course you will. Let’s find a way for you to get an email to your friends. Come on, let’s go. I’ve got an idea.”
Devin looked at the path then at Rosie. Her cheeks billowed as she blew out a long puff of air.
“It’s going to take us forever to walk back to Havana.”
“We don’t have much of a choice, do we?” Rosie said.
Rosie watched as Devin’s gaze left the path and fixated on Mambo Cielo’s door.
“Think she’d help us?”
Rosie shrugged.
“Can’t hurt to try.”
“I hope those aren’t the famous last words,” Devin said as she climbed the steps.
Two tiny knuckles rapped against the ancient wooden door.
23
I’m not scared, you’re scared
A voice filled the air. It didn’t seem to Rosie that it had come from inside the hut. It sounded like it came from multiple speakers that had been positioned around them, like a super, high-quality surround sound system. She looked up at the trees for the source but saw none.
“I can help you no more. Be gone,” the voice bellowed.
“But–” Devin started to object. Thoughts of being turned into a snake flashed through Rosie’s mind, and she interrupted her.
“Devin, probably not a good idea to push her.”
Devin tightened her lips, turned her back to the door and crossed her arms.
“You’re probably right. As usual.” She pointed to the path. “Might as well get started. We won’t make it there by sunrise and will have to spend the night in the woods.”
They began the trek back to Havana.
The going was slow, the path filled with many ridges and potholes. The dampness of the forest made the dirt soft, muddy.
The moon was high and bright, the forest filled with sounds, most of which were unfamiliar to Rosie. Chirps. Screeches. Hoots and howls.
“What do you think is making all those noises?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” Devin said. “Birds mostly, I guess. Maybe monkeys?”
“Do you think there’s any lions or tigers here?”
“Or bears?”
“Funny. Not funny. Seriously, do you?”
“I don’t think Cuba has any wild animals that are a threat to humans if that’s what you mean,” Devin said.
“How about a threat to dolls?”
The sound of a branch cracking somewhere in the woods behind them caused them both to jump and turn.
“It’s kind of creepy here Devin,” Rosie said. “Maybe we should’ve stayed near Mambo Cielo’s hut until sunrise.”
“Then what? We wouldn’t be able to walk until sunset, so we’d be in the same situation only a day later.” Devin slipped her arm through Rosie’s. “Come on, we’ll be fine. There’s nothing out here that has any interest in us.”
They walked in silence for a while. Maybe it was Rosie’s imagination, but it seemed the noises in the forest had grown louder. A shrill shriek pierced the night air.
She grabbed Devin’s arm and froze.
“What was that?” she whispered.
“I don’t know,” Devin said. “A bird. Maybe?”
“It sounded like something was murdered.”
It was the sound of fluttering wings that caused Rosie to peer upward and that’s when she saw them. Hundreds of dark silhouettes streaking across the sky. She shrieked, covered her head with the book, and cowered.
“Devin! Watch out. Attack birds!”
Devin ducked, glanced up, then stood.
“Rosie. Those are just bats. They won’t–”
“Ack! They’ll get tangled in my hair. Run!”
Rosie started to run but Devin grabbed her robe and pulled her back.
“They won’t get tangled in your hair. Besides, you have a veil on your head, remember?”
Rosie cast a cautious glance skyward.
“Do you think they’ll try to carry us away?”
Devin laughed. “Rosie. Be real. They’re too small to carry us away, besides, they only eat insects. They want nothing to do with you.”
As quickly as it had appeared, the fluttering of wings died down, and the bats were gone.
Rosie glanced around at the shadowy forest.
“Devin, I’m scared. I mean, really scared.” Whether it was the night air or her fear, Rosie didn’t know but suddenly she was filled with a damp chilliness.
“I know,” Devin wrapped an arm around Rosie’s shoulder. “Me too. Keep walking. We’ll be fine.”
The first time Rosie saw it, it didn’t register as anything more than a puddle, and she stepped around it. Then she saw another, and another. A scattered row of mud filled pools stretched before them.
“Devin?”
“Mm hmm?” Devin was busy focusing on where to next place her foot so she could avoid the puddles that littered the path.
“These puddles?”
“Yeah?”
They were the size of Rosie’s head and were placed along the path in an alternating pattern.
“Do you think it’s odd that puddles are arranged in a right, left, equally distributed, alternating pattern? Or do strange things like that occur in nature in Cuba?”
Devin stopped. It was as if what Rosie suggested suddenly made sense to her.
A flash of movement dashed from the underbrush. Ros
ie screamed, threw an arm around Devin’s neck and leapt up into the air. Devin caught and cradled her, holding her off the ground.
A lizard bolted across the path.
Rosie suddenly felt very uncomfortable. She had an arm wrapped around Devin’s neck, and Devin was holding her. Their faces were only inches apart. There was a moment of awkward silence as they studied each other’s face.
“Um. It’s just a lizard,” Devin said as she lowered Rosie back down.
“Yeah. Ah. Sorry about that, but damn, it scared me,” Rosie said. “That was a freaking big lizard. Lizards don’t eat dolls, do they?”
Devin stood behind Rosie and wrapped both arms around her, pulling her in tightly against her own body. She whispered into Rosie’s ear, “No, they eat insects and fruit.”
Rosie smiled and exhaled. Her gaze returned to the puddles, one in particular that was on the grassy side of the path and contained less water. She peeled Devin’s arms from her waist, walked to the puddle and squatted down next to it. The pool of mud was divided into five sections, one larger, nearly circular section at the bottom and four smaller circles along the top.
“Devin…” Rosie’s voice trailed off as she swallowed.
Devin squatted beside her and gazed down at the print.
“Please tell me that whatever made that footprint also eats insects and fruit,” Rosie said. “Because I–”
She was interrupted by a loud hiss.
Rosie looked up. On the other side of the path, surrounded by the deep darkness of the forest, reflected two large, round golden-yellow eyes.
24
I think I can…Maybe?
“Oh shit,” Devin reached for Rosie’s arm. “Don’t make any quick movements.”
Rosie was frozen with fear.
“I don’t plan to,” she said. “What do we do?”
“Stay still, maybe it’ll go away.”
Rosie held her breath and stared into the eyes of whatever was hidden from their sight. Whatever it was, was big. The eyes were like those of a cat with thin vertical slits for pupils. But these were not the eyes of any ordinary house cat. These eyes hovered high above Rosie’s head. She figured it had to be four feet tall at least.