Maya and the Rising Dark

by Rena Barron

  She nodded, her eyes still glued on the darkbringers.

  “You should have stayed on your side of the veil,” Nana said, her voice younger. She raised her hands, and the ground shook. Roots sprouted up from the patches of grass along the sidewalks. At first they looked like worms poking their heads from the dirt, then they shot out into the street. They twined together and formed bars around the darkbringers so they couldn’t escape.

  “We come with a message,” one of the darkbringers hissed. It was the one who attacked Mama. The one who looked like the blue Hulk.

  I swallowed hard, again thinking of the Lord of Shadows. The cranky twins said that he took long naps. Maybe he did that to regenerate after digesting all the life he drained from the world. Had he been asleep before the tears started in the veil again? Was he somehow causing them now?

  “Go back to the heavens or die with your precious humans,” the darkbringer growled.

  I remembered then. The orishas were celestials who belonged to the universe, not a particular planet.

  “You dare threaten us?” Nana demanded. The darkbringers shuffled closer together as her vines thrashed at them. When I say vines, these were as thick as pythons and looked like they could crush every bone in your body.

  The tear in the veil began to shrink. It was like Papa said. The veil was repairing itself. It made me wonder: if this was a small tear, then how big were the tears he had to mend that couldn’t heal on their own? They must’ve been the size of whole cities or even larger. How many darkbringers could get into our world through them? I didn’t want to do that math.

  The shadows that had slithered out of the tear disappeared back into the hole. Nana had the darkbringers trapped. Some of them looked miserable as their way home started to vanish before their eyes.

  “Where is Elegguá?” Mr. Jenkins asked, his voice like ice.

  “You want him,” the darkbringer said. “Come into the Dark and get him.”

  I tightened my hand around the staff and gritted my teeth.

  “How are you tearing the veil?” Nana asked.

  “Soon our master will be able to come here himself.” The darkbringer ignored her question. “And he’ll destroy this world without so much as lifting a finger.”

  “Too bad you won’t live to see it,” Nana said, her voice echoing in my head like a drum. Her skin glowed brighter, and more vines joined the others. There were so many now that we couldn’t see the darkbringers anymore. A bright light flashed, and I shielded my eyes. When the light faded, the vines and the darkbringers were gone.

  “You girls wait here,” Mama said. “I need to talk to Nana and Shangó.”

  Frankie and I glanced at each other, shaking to the bone. I clasped Papa’s staff close to my side. There was no sign of the darkbringers or the vines.

  “Did she send them back into the Dark?” Frankie whispered to me.

  “That or wiped them from existence,” I said, not sure I wanted to know the answer.

  I couldn’t let Papa stay in the Dark. The Lord of Shadows was dangerous and unpredictable. With Mama talking to the orishas, I inched toward the tear in the veil that was still open. It was a little taller than me now but shrinking fast. I stepped closer, my chest heaving up and down.

  “Maya, what are you doing?” Frankie asked, grabbing my arm.

  “I’m going after Papa,” I said. “He needs his staff.”

  Frankie frowned. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “I know, but I’m going,” I said as she let go.

  Fat tears filled her eyes. “What if something happens to you?”

  “It’ll be okay,” I said, glancing at my feet. I couldn’t bear to see her so scared for me, but I had to do this for Papa. I ran across the street, and as I reached the black hole, I felt the energy from it vibrating against my face. I took one step in, and someone jerked me back.

  I tried to wriggle away, but the person twirled me around. I looked up at a bushy white beard. It was Ernest, the man who always sat in front of the corner store playing his harmonica. He’d been missing from his spot for weeks now. Fire burned in his eyes—real flames where his pupils should be.

  “Maya, what were you thinking?” Miss Lucille appeared next to him. “Thank the universe you were here, Eshu.”

  Eshu, the orisha of balance—the one who was with my father when the Lord of Shadows took him. He stared down at me with a twinkle in his eyes, and I noticed for the first time that he looked a little like Papa.

  “You’re not going anywhere, future guardian,” he said in a deep voice. “We need you.”

  I watched desperately as the tear in the veil closed—crushing my chance to help Papa.

  Eleven

  When something ordinary

  becomes magical

  “Maya Janine Abeola!” Mama yelled. “Have you lost your good sense?”

  Mama and the orishas were staring at me like I was the worst kid in the world while I brushed tears from my cheeks. I didn’t care that I was going to be in trouble again. All I could think about was how the tear in the veil had disappeared before my eyes. “That was our chance to go after Papa,” I said, my shoulders slumping. “We had a way in, and now it’s gone.”

  “Maya.” Miss Lucille took a placating tone like she was talking to a little kid. “Do you think a twelve-year-old can just walk into the Dark and come out in one piece?”

  Eshu drew a finger across his throat so I’d know how dangerous it was. Nana shook her head and pursed her lips to show her disapproval. I got that the grownups were trying to keep me safe, but it was hard to think about my own life with Papa trapped in the Dark.

  “Ernest . . . I mean, Eshu,” I said, my voice shy. Seeing his harmonica on a red and black cord around his neck now made me think that just maybe things could be normal again. We would get Papa back. “You called me ‘future guardian.’ What does that mean?”

  “It doesn’t mean anything yet,” Nana answered for him.

  I winced and bit my lip. “What do you mean by yet?”

  Shangó and Eshu glanced at each other, and I couldn’t read their expressions.

  The yet part really worried me. Papa was guardian of the veil, but did that mean I would become guardian if something bad happened to him?

  “I mean that you’re still too young, Maya,” Nana said, her voice gentler.

  Eshu flashed me a reassuring smile. “And your father will have to train you.”

  “But how can I become a guardian if I don’t have any magic of my own?” I said under my breath.

  “That’s not for you to worry about now, little one,” Shangó said as the axes across his back vanished.

  Right before our eyes, the three orishas changed into their human forms. Nana appeared older. Lightning stopped sparking across Shangó’s skin. The fire burned out of Eshu’s eyes. Now they stood in front of me looking as normal as ever. My mind tried to convince me that everything that happened was my imagination, but I wasn’t fooled.

  Eli ran down the sidewalk with Jayla bouncing on his hip. Nana met them halfway and pulled them both into a hug.

  “I saw the night monsters, Nana!” Jayla said excitedly as she climbed into her grandmother’s arms.

  “Not monsters, sweetie, people,” Nana said, glancing to Mama. “Please come down to the community center with the children after the twins clean up this mess. I’ll assemble the rest of the council. There is much to discuss.”

  Mama gave the orisha a wary nod but said nothing.

  At that, Nana, Mr. Jenkins (Shangó), and Ernest (Eshu) set off toward the community center. Jayla waved at Eli, who stayed behind, scratching his head.

  “Are you sure Nana’s an orisha?” Eli cocked an eyebrow at Miss Lucille.

  With Miss Lucille looking sour, Frankie whispered, “You missed all the real action.”

  “Ultimate facepalm.” Eli slapped his forehead. “I always miss the fun stuff.”

  Soon the dark clouds lifted, and it was bright outside
again. Miss Lucille glanced up at the sky. “Whenever the darkbringers come into our world, they bring a bit of the Dark with them.”

  Every single neighbor on my block was in their front yard or on the street. Some were taking pictures of the hole in the oak tree or the torn-up grass where Nana’s vines had burst from the ground. Some were in shock and couldn’t stop shaking. Miss Ida moved to stand apart from the rest of us. Swirling blue smoke curled between her fingers.

  “What is she doing?” Frankie asked, and I thought I knew.

  Miss Ida raised her hands up and blew across her palms. The blue smoke stretched into long tendrils that swept through the crowd. A warm breeze tickled my arms as the magic passed over me while it seemed to linger on my neighbors’ skin.

  Now that the commotion had died down, my ex-­babysitter Lakesha and her cousin LJ had come back and were standing in front of her house. She stared down at her phone. “I had video of everything. I swear I did.”

  “Did you remember to hit Record?” LJ rolled his eyes. She was good at forgetting things. Like the time she was babysitting me and left the popcorn on the stove too long. Or when she let her hedgehog out of his cage and forgot to put him back in. She found him two days later at the bottom of a laundry basket, gnawing one of her socks.

  When the magic on the wind hit her, her face went blank. So did LJ’s.

  “What’s happening?” another neighbor standing on his porch asked.

  As my neighbors’ faces went blank one by one, I turned to Miss Lucille. Her eyes glowed with blue light again. “Is Miss Ida doing what I think?”

  “She’s making them forget,” Miss Lucille confirmed.

  “Are you going to steal our memories too?” I backed away. I wouldn’t let the cranky twins make me forget that Papa was in trouble.

  “Of course not, Maya.” Miss Lucille flicked her wrist and the hole in the tree disappeared and the ground went back to normal. When she was done, no one had so much as a dirt spot on their clothes to remind them of what happened. “My sister’s directing her magic at the humans only . . . It’s better that way so they’re not afraid.”

  Frankie crossed her arms. “You can’t just do something like that. It’s not right.”

  “Totally not cool to mess with people’s minds,” Eli said, wagging his finger.

  “I don’t have time to explain it again.” Miss Lucille frowned. “We’re finished here, and we need to get you to the orisha council.”

  Finally.

  Nana and the other orishas must have a plan to get my father back.

  My heart pounded against my chest as we walked down Wood Street. Everything looked normal, except people from another dimension had attacked our neighborhood twice. And orishas—real orishas—pretending to be humans had saved the day. No one outside of my friends and Mama would even remember it.

  Every muscle in my body was wound tight. Papa was missing, and I couldn’t accept that he was really gone. Was he . . . No, he wasn’t. He couldn’t be. I wouldn’t let myself think it.

  As we walked block after block, Frankie and Eli kept trying to reassure me that everything was going to be okay. But their words echoed in my head as my eyes stayed on my father’s black staff. It was easier to focus on it so I didn’t burst into tears. The white symbols engraved in the staff reflected in the sunlight. I am the guardian of the veil. That was my father’s job, but Eshu, the god of balance, had called me future guardian. If things were different, that would’ve been exciting news, but right now I just wanted Papa back.

  When we reached the community center, I sucked in a deep breath. Even from the sidewalk, you could smell the chlorine from the swimming pool inside. Older kids played basketball in the gated courts next to the center. There was a playground too, where most of the younger kids liked to hang out. A gardener knelt in the flower bed in front of the building tending to a rosebush.

  Everything about the two-story building looked plain. Weather had worn down the red bricks, and mold filled the gaps between the concrete. The windows were frosted so you couldn’t see inside, but it wasn’t anything special. I never in a million years would’ve guessed that gods had made this place their headquarters.

  Miss Lucille led the way inside the community center. The reception area had dingy tan walls and black-and-white-checkered tiles. I always thought the place looked like something straight out of another century. The girl at the receptionist’s desk, Carla, wore blue glasses that matched her lipstick. She glanced up from her cellphone, her face bored, until her eyes landed on the cranky twins.

  “Miss Ida and Miss Lucille.” She nodded at them, then looked at Mama, me, and my friends like she was unsure if she should say more. “The council members are expecting you.”

  Miss Ida smiled, but I could tell her mind was someplace else. “We’re ready.”

  Carla snapped her fingers. “You may pass.”

  Frankie, Eli, and I shrugged, not sure why she snapped her fingers. But Mama and the cranky twins said nothing as they headed for the metal detector. Miss Lucille entered first and disappeared. I stopped in my tracks, and Eli ran straight into me. Frankie stopped too, her eyes wide with glee.

  “I never knew magic could be this cool,” she said, after a big gulp.

  “Totally unfair that Nana never told me about this,” Eli said, sulking.

  I guessed that he was feeling the same as me. I was still struggling to catch up when the rules of the world kept changing. But I wouldn’t let the fear of the unknown or uncertainty stand in my way of rescuing Papa.

  “Totally unfair,” I agreed as Miss Ida disappeared next.

  The mechanics of the metal detector were fascinating. Nothing out of the ordinary seemed to happen when the grownups passed through it. No loud shriek like when Miss Lucille had raced to the park in her spirit form. No bright light like when Frankie created her force field. Or warm tingle against my skin like when Miss Ida made our neighbors forget the darkbringers. Yet, they had vanished into thin air. Clara snapping her fingers must’ve opened some sort of portal.

  On the other side of the metal detector, I could see down the hall into the main room. There was a small stage with round tables where Nana hosted bingo every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday night.

  Had I not seen the cranky twins disappear, I wouldn’t have believed the metal detector was a gateway. Where would it take us? Mama gave me an encouraging smile, then walked through it herself.

  “Here goes nothing!” Eli said, racing in front of Frankie and me.

  “No running indoors!” Carla yelled, but it was too late. Eli vanished.

  “You’re next,” I said to Frankie, giving her a fist bump before she disappeared through the metal detector too.

  “You’re his kid, aren’t you?” Carla asked, leaning forward over her desk.

  We both knew who he was.

  “Elegguá will be okay, you know?” She paused, her eyes turning more serious. “He’s never failed us before, even when the Lord of Shadows . . . when he . . . well, you know.”

  When the Lord of Shadows killed my father’s first wife and children.

  “I know he won’t,” I said, my voice firm. “He’s the guardian of the veil.”

  I walked through the metal detector, knowing that there was no turning back. After today, my life would never be the same. I was completely unprepared for what happened next. My body lurched forward like I was on a roller coaster without a padded bar to keep me from falling. For a split second, I couldn’t breathe, and my heart raced. The elastic band holding my locs in a ponytail popped, and my hair flew across my face.

  I bit back a scream as a gust of wind lifted me from my feet and flung me down a long hall. I flew through the air at a breakneck pace, not slowing even when a speck of light appeared ahead of me.

  The golden light grew bigger the closer I got. Soon I realized it was an archway above a pair of gilded double doors and I was about to slam right into it.

  “Somebody . . . anybody, help!” I yelled, but
there was no one to hear me. “Please!”

  Racing toward the doors at the speed of light, I squeezed my eyes shut and braced for certain death.

  Twelve

  In which I make a decision

  Sheer terror seized my mind as I hurtled closer to becoming a human pancake. My life didn’t flash before my eyes, but I did almost pee my pants. I forced myself to open my eyes. If I was going to die, I was going to face death head-on. Besides, there was something exciting about flying for the first time.

  I wasn’t spinning wildly through the air. I felt an invisible walkway of air beneath my feet as solid as a real floor. Magic glued me to it and kept me from falling. I didn’t see either of my friends splattered on the black marble floor below, which was a good sign.

  When I was inches away from impact, I clenched my teeth, convinced that my life was over, but I drew to a sudden stop. Magic held me suspended in the air in front of the golden doors. Doors that could only be for giants or gods who liked to prance around in giant form. They were at least three stories tall and as wide as the Willis Tower. Up close, I could see symbols engraved in them. Stars, planets, plants, animals, and objects. Some were like the symbols on Papa’s staff, but many I didn’t recognize.

  “What are you doing hanging around up there?” Eli shouted from below me.

  “Just taking in the scenery,” I yelled back at the top of his head.

  “We don’t have all day, you know,” he said, tapping his foot.

  As if the magic had been eavesdropping on our conversation, it lowered me toward the floor. I had to admit descending in an invisible elevator would’ve been cool under better circumstances. When my feet finally landed on the black marble, my legs felt like jelly.

  Eli beamed. “That was almost as great as riding Goliath at Six Flags Great America.”

  “Yeah, right, almost,” I said, forcing myself to laugh when I was still shaking.

  Frankie poked her head through a crack between the doors wide enough to fit a baby giraffe. “What’s taking you both so long? Everyone’s waiting.”