by C. I. Lopez
“I believe Tomas intends to kill her tonight, Belky, or she will die on her own before he gets back. If we care about her, we need to intervene fast. Right now, she has nothing to live for, but we can change that. You stay with her and try to hold on to her spirit while I get some help.”
In their Haitian religion, voodoo believers pray and perform animal sacrifices to feed and beckon the spirits. Then they dance wearing white clothes as a show of purity until a vision takes over their bodies, or they can send the soul into the body of a sick person. The spirit can heal an almost dead body for a price, but not of the monetary persuasion.
Belky felt that Yasmin was worth the risk.
“Come then,” Prince said. “The Boss Man won’t be coming back until his gluttonous ways are filled with alcohol and women. Hurry!”
“What about the guards?” Belky asked.
“We’re the least of their concerns today, Belky. Besides, they are not at the monitors anymore. The National Guard will be coming sometime soon, and they are preparing their arsenal for that altercation.”
Prince hurried to Belky’s apartment to gather his own drum. On his way back, he grabbed by the neck one of the chickens that ran loose in the backyard for the cooks to use, but this time it would serve a different purpose. He broke its neck, twisting it in his hands.
Out of Belky’s closet, he’d pulled his loose-fitting white shirt, which he wore over his clothes. It was the ceremonial shirt of a voodoo priest. Together they went to the empty yard at the back of the house, where they prayed a twisted Roman Catholic prayer, not intended for any God, but to the Devil himself.
Together they sat on the grass softly beating the drums and allowing the blood of the chicken to run into the earth. Suddenly Belky stood up and danced to the syncopated rhythm, moving slowly at first, then faster and harder with the rising pulse of the beat. The spilled blood of the chicken baited the spirits to appear, and Belky’s dancing invited the spirit.
Awakening the dormant priest he’d been in Haiti, Prince drew sacred symbols in the dirt with cornmeal where the chicken’s blood-soaked the earth. He poured rum on the ground over the blood to further entice the spirits.
Finally, Belky fell to the ground, convulsing for a moment before rising back to her feet. She resumed the dance, moving differently, a slow and sensual movement, not of her own volition. She danced the undulating passage of a snake, with her arms raised high in the air, hands clasped, her movements showing a flexibility that seemed impossible for a human being. She was experiencing the possession of the original snake charmer spirit: the powerful Ursula, a powerful healing spirit.
Quickly, Prince half-carried his sister to Yasmin’s room. As he dragged her into the room, Belky awoke as the spirit left her, sensing the scent of Prince’s snake, Terciopelo, in the room. A now wide awake Belky with Prince at her side begged for the spirit, or Loa, to help them to heal Yasmin.
In Haiti, it is an honor to be entered and ‘ridden’ by a Loa. With the blood of the chicken shed, and the rum spilled, Ursula remained unconvinced. Prince showed the spirit the large, ornate box he’d hid under Yasmin’s bed containing the biggest of his fer-de-lance vipers. A six-foot-long female, filled with venom, his favorite, whom he’d named, Terciopelo.
Belky checked Yasmin’s pulse, which was even weaker, her respiration shallower until it was hardly detectable. The girl’s body felt cold; in spite of the blankets, the faithful maid piled on her. Belky and Prince understood that in cases of massive trauma, disassociation was common, and the recipient was more susceptible to spirit possession.
Modern science accepted that spirit possession was also an explanation for some physical and psychological symptoms that could help the patient. In their native culture, Belky and Prince believed that if the spirit entered a sick person, the recipient could heal. The young Haitians were aware that while the spirit hosted the body, it was capable of speaking with its own voice if it chose to do so.
In the last effort to save Yasmin, Prince called the spirit by name, ordering Ursula with the authority of a voodoo priest to enter the shape of the dying girl. Prince had performed the ritual. All he had left to entice Ursula was the presence of his largest viper and one last bottle of rum, which he poured directly over Yasmin’s body. He was speaking in the spirit’s language, begging for a Loa for the young woman.
Belky stood silently praying, until Ursula responded by creating a whirlpool of air in the room. The spirit rushed into the rum covered body.
Prince watched the spirit sense death in Yasmin’s body, while Belky came closer and began to sing her praises to Ursula. Belky chanted a mantra that was followed by Prince’s barely audible drumming, challenging the spirit to cure the girl. The proud Ursula cursed Prince using Yasmin’s voice, letting him know that her powers were strong enough to bring life to the dying creature.
Prince jumped back with fear when he heard the voice of the spirit, responding to his call, speaking in its native Haitian, and then quickly switching to Yasmin’s sweet voice in Spanish. Ursula was a powerful spirit that had to be treated with care. She was a dangerous trickster.
Once the shock of the strange voice coming out of Yasmin was quiet, Prince realized that a powerful spirit would make the task ahead much more manageable. He glanced at Belky as if reminding her that the manifestation could turn from being treacherous to very loyal. One never knew which magic creature would emerge at any one time.
Upon hearing Ursula’s voice, the viper in the ancient box Prince brought into the room became restless, hissing and thrashing about inside the box. Feeling her call. It rattled eagerly by straining in anticipation of being set loose.
Ursula, who was now present in Yasmin’s body, smiled in anticipation.
Donning their white clothes for safety, Belky danced and chanted, shaking lavender branches in the room as a form of benediction before releasing the enormous viper, Terciopelo, in response to Ursula’s call.
Prince whispered in Haitian to the box he held in his hands, which served as a cage for the serpent. Taking out his key from his pocket, he heard the gleeful laughter from Ursula, who recognized it. Before removing the cover, he used the calming words known to snake charmers.
Once Prince felt the creature relax, he slowly opened the lid, releasing the viper calmly. As it wrapped itself around Prince’s body, its head turned toward the image of Yasmin, its long tongue showing its dexterity by extending in that direction. Repeating the same mantra, Prince allowed the huge serpent to meander her way through the room.
Belky went into her trance, chanting with eyes closed and tapping her lavender branch on the floor.
Meanwhile, Yasmin, in her incarnation, climbed out of bed and calmly sat on the floor, summoning the snake by its name, Terciopelo. She welcomed the viper climbing her body as if caressing her. There was no fear in the girl’s possessed body as she expertly handled the magnificent viper. Sitting on the floor, the two became acquainted.
“This girl’s mind is better, Prince, but there is too much grief there to return to its former self,” Ursula, the spirit, told the young Haitian couple, speaking in its husky voice. “Now, I must leave, but I will need payment for my labor.”
“What do you want?” Prince asked sternly, knowing that a healing spirit had to be paid whatever it asked. Ursula could be a very dangerous spirit if crossed.
“I want Terciopelo.”
For a moment, Prince forgot his own advice and began to complain, “But, Terciopelo has been mine since I was a child in my own country.” He remembered that Ursula was the original snake charmer and she had healed Yasmin as requested. The girl’s color had returned, her respiration was normal, as well as the blood pressure. Yasmin was alive. “Yes, Ursula, Terciopelo is yours, and we thank you for saving the girl’s life,” Prince spoke humbly.
Belky bore witness to the unearthly exchange but said nothing.
“Allow me to say goodbye to Terciopelo,” Prince asked. Before he took a step closer, the snake
flew through the air, coiled around the spirit’s form, and disappeared, held in the powerful arms of Ursula. The distraught young Haitian priest struggled for a moment with the loss of Terciopelo. Looking at Yasmin sitting on the bed with her green eyes opened and a smile on her face, made him realize that losing a favorite snake was a small price to pay for his friend’s life. Prince left the room quietly to attend to other pressing matters.
Belky stayed, sitting by the girl on the bed to tend to her in case she needed support.
*
Awareness was slowly returning to Yasmin’s mind as she stared at the white walls, realizing with a shudder that she was back in Tomas’s house and recalling the details of how she’d gotten back there. Memories flooded her mind of the happiness she’d experienced during her four days with Federico when she had learned to love, the joy of her sister’s marriage, and pregnancy.
Had it all been a dream? Why was she back at Tomas’ house?
When slowly the other memories exploded into her consciousness, she began to see the dead bodies in a flash of light, one after the other. Federico was lying on the floor, bleeding to death in excruciating pain, in the home he loved. Captain Santos Sosa shredded with bullet holes as if he’d been through a cheese grater. Her dear sister lying dead with a hole in her forehead.
Why did she see these images?
Yasmin thought it a bad dream, which ended with a scream of pure pain as she remembered all that had happened. It was Tomas who killed the only people she loved. Innocent, beloved people, all dead because of her. She cried for a long time, finally releasing her grief.
It was time for Belky to leave Yasmin alone and hope the girl was strong enough now to overcome her sorrow. She gathered all the magic paraphernalia and quietly left the grieving girl to deal with the ordeal she’d suffered.
Later that night, Tomas walked in Yasmin’s room, as he always did, expecting to find his wife either dead or acting irrationally as she had earlier. Instead, he was elated to see his wife looking more radiant and beautiful than ever, dressed in her beige dress with spaghetti straps. She was wearing the emerald green earrings that matched her eyes.
Yasmin gave a sinister smile at her husband as an aura began to form in her pretty eyes. A quick flicker of incandescence on the periphery of her vision, followed by a desire to vomit. She shut her eyes in the hope it was a trick of light and the stress of that evil day in the recent past.
Tomas’ intention, before seeing Yasmin looking so well and so alluring, was to poison her that night. He suddenly felt so drawn to the suggestive moves of the girl that he considered postponing his intentions.
The last thing Yasmin wanted was another late-night invitation from Tomas, but that was precisely what he was proposing. He was offering a tentative beginning to a relationship that had sprung a geyser a long time ago, and a threat of death was gaping through the huge hole.
Yasmin’s mind did somersaults. She was trying to figure out this man who had killed everyone she loved only a few days before but was now asking her to dinner as if nothing had happened. She presumed he intended to have her die in an accident that night, and she had a plan to stay alive by seducing her husband into an unexpected death.
The flickering intensity in her field of vision now haloed with shifting ripples of light made it difficult for her to consummate her plan. Stumbling after attempting to walk, Yasmin said, “I can’t do it tonight, Tomas. There’s something wrong with my eyes. Maybe tomorrow.”
Tomas tried to hide his disappointment a little. He tutted while looking around the room for some medication to stuff down her throat, but there was none. He picked up his coat, placing a glass of fizzing soda water he brought with him on her nightstand, untouched except for the poison put in it earlier.
Thinking that Yasmin would be thirsty after having slept for days, he placed it close to her reach from the bed. He muttered, “I should have known your recovery was too good to be true. I will return tomorrow.” His hunger for her was diminished by his need to have her dead.
Yasmin’s shimmering vision had thickened now into a perfect circle of tightly packed strands of light that seemed to encircle her pupil. She felt her stomach lurch again, and she swallowed hard to keep down whatever it was that wanted out.
Tomas’ pager vibrated a second before she heard his ringtone. Staring at the screen, Tomas’ face went pale before he finally answered, running to the phone in the hall “Chilo, you’re done early. Earlier than I’d planned. Something’s happened?” Then the phone went dead. Tomas persisted, “Where are you, Chilo?”
Miraculously the phone came back to life. Chilo answered. “Just turning into the highway. Five kilometers away, Sir.”
“If you’re being followed, Chilo lead your persecutors into the swamp before you come here.” Tomas responded, without looking at his wife again. If he had, he would have seen her eyes turn from velvet green to yellow for just a moment.
“Tomas,” she called out to him, looking annoyed. “What is happening?”
“It’s none of your business, Yasmin, what do you care about what happens to me?”
“But I do, Tomas. I’m sorry I haven’t been a better wife to you. I do desire you and hoped to show you tonight, but my eyes are not well.” Yasmin stood at the door of her bedroom, a changed demeanor about her body and face. Looking beautiful and desirable wearing the outfit she had chosen with the purpose of seducing him.
It made Tomas take another look. This was the woman he’d always desired, who seemed to be offering herself to him in body and mind. His lust for her was too strong. He came back and picked up the fizzing soda. “I’ll see you tomorrow, baby. Wear that dress again, and I won’t disappoint.”
“No, Tomas,” said the girl approaching her husband in her most captivating way, reaching for his face to place a kiss on his lips with the promise of so much more. “I can’t wait until tomorrow. Come back later tonight, so I can show you how I feel about you.”
In his mad lust for his wife, Tomas didn’t question the change in her behavior. Unable to even grasp the grief the girl was experiencing, he promised to come back later that night. So strong was his desire to be with Yasmin, Tomas almost forgot his reason for wanting to kill her. As she offered her body to him, Tomas ran his hands over it while she pretended to feel hot with passion, knowing he’d be back.
However, she knew he had pressing business. It would give her time to prepare for his return and determine what was happening to her eyes.
PART FOUR
Chapter 6
Boss Lady
While Chilo tried to lose his tail, the National Guard vehicle following him along jungle roads, the rest of the men in the compound, including Tomas, prepared for the upcoming attack by emptying out their vast arsenal of weapons and ammunition, and setting up blockades at the entrance to the compound.
Tomas gave instructions to prepare for an ambush before the soldiers reached the main gate. They would be met with weapons the government didn’t even know existed and could not overcome their superior power. Tomas was in full war mode.
*
Meanwhile, Yasmin made her way to Belky’s apartment with her tunnel vision, afraid of what was happening to her. Boldly she knocked on Belky’s door almost in tears and ran to her bathroom, where she finally vomited the bile in her stomach.
“Belky, I remember everything, and I can’t bear it. I close my eyes to ease the flashes of light. I see the bodies lying in puddles of blood, and they stand up walking towards me, blood spilling from their wounds, pointing at me, surrounded by barking dogs.” She panted like a wild animal. “What does that mean, Belky? They are dead, and awful mute pleas are coming out of their mouths. Who will hear them, Belky? If I could only stop this, console them. Kill him, they say to me. If I could only let them rest in peace. Let them know what I intend to do, I could stop them, and you know what I must do. It’s all my fault.”
Yasmin had spoken rapidly in her half-conscious state, frightening Miss Belky.
“Tell me everything, but first, let’s lie you down in a dark room to let you relax. What you have is a migraine, and it’s no wonder you hallucinate after all you’ve been through. Just lie down in my room. I’ll make it dark by closing all the shades. I’ll give you medicine that will help you relax while you tell me everything that happened.”
Feeling much better after vomiting, Yasmin laid in the dark room, taking medicine offered by Belky, who herself was a migraine sufferer. Yasmin closed her eyes and told Miss Belky how she’d reached her sister’s home and how she ran into Federico. Before she could finish telling her story, Yasmin fell fast asleep without reaching the last part of her narrative.
Upon awakening, content to know the migraine was gone, Yasmin opened the shades. She saw that the backyard of Tomas’ house was turned into a battlefield. She’d never seen such an arsenal of weapons, from automatic rifles to grenades and flame throwers.
“What is going on, Belky?” she asked, shivering at what she saw.
“The National Guard is coming after the Boss Man, I hear. They want revenge for the killing of innocent people, and one of the victims was a member of the National Guard. I guess they’re coming for us and the Boss Man is getting ready for a fight. You need to get out of here.”
“No. It’s not going to happen, Belky. Let me have the box with Prince’s young fer-de-lance. I know how dangerous the younger ones can be. There’ll be no war in this house.”
“Miss Yasmin, I can’t. They are too dangerous. Terciopelo was trained by Prince, but these young ones are killers.”
“I know,” Yasmin responded. “I need them tonight.”
“Prince would never allow it, Yasmin. It’s too dangerous for you. Because they are juveniles, they are more dangerous than Terciopelo herself. A bite from them would kill you as they will spill their entire sack of venom on their first bite. They are not yet disciplined enough to save some venom, as an adult viper would. Terciopelo knew how to do it.”