by Kira Saito
“No,” I whispered. “No I don’t believe you. It can’t end like that. Lucus hasn’t been given a fair chance. His life was cut short.” I was going to say ‘that’s not fair’ again but stopped myself. I was beginning to realize that maybe fair had very little to do with anything.
“It will end like that. Perhaps you need some time, hmmm? I can give you the time you need to make your choice, Arelia. The choice I know you’re going to eventually make. When you’re ready to hand Louis over to me and give Lucus what he wants. I will come for them when you are ready to make the mature decision. Don’t give into these childish and hopeful thoughts that love and redemption are possible for everyone. Be wise and know when to quit. Sometimes being mature means knowing when to give up.”
“No.”
“Yes. Good-bye for now, Arelia. I’ll see you soon. I know I’ll see you real soon.”
“No. No. No.” Was the only thing I could say long after Mait Carrefour had made his exit. “No.”
Chapter 23
Tricks
I paced around Aunt Mae’s office for a good ten minutes and went over what Mait Carrefour had said. I knew that I couldn’t completely trust him. He was a very unpredictable spirit and thrived on collecting miserable souls. If I was completely honest with myself, Louis was one of the saddest and most tragic souls I’d ever met, but I couldn’t bring myself to give up on him.
Erzulie and Bade kept telling me that Ivan/Louis wasn’t the enemy but tonight he sure felt like one. I closed my eyes and blocked out the stream of blood that had started to slide down the office walls. It’s not real. It’s not real. There is no blood in this room.
Yes, there is. This room is filled with my blood, queen.
I opened my eyes and even though the blood was still there, I ignored it. Maybe I was still a masochist, even though I had vowed not to be anymore, or maybe I was silly and naïve like the spirits kept reminding me, but I wasn’t ready to give up just yet. I couldn’t.
I flipped open the LaRue Family spell book and located the section labeled Tricks. I figured if I found where Ivan had laid the trick I could at least gain back some of my control and be in a position where I was able to think clearly and stop him from hurting Sabrina. Beyond that I had no idea what I was going to do. How do you help someone who doesn’t want to be helped?
Tricks
Tricks can be used to curse, possess, or bring luck or love.
Tricks can consist of specific roots, powders, herbs, or personal belongings, depending on the desired outcome of the trick and voodoo dolls made in the image of your target. Remember: blood, sweat, and especially hair are very powerful ingredients.
Tricks can be placed in a bottle and buried under the target’s doorstep or in their backyard or a path they cross on a routine basis.
Tricks known as hot track magic can be used in the form of powders and passed over an area where your target will walk over on a daily basis. The effects of the powders will seep through their feet and into their very soul.
Tricks can be sewn into the seam of the target’s clothes.
Tricks can be placed underneath your target’s mattress, under their pillow or under their bed.
Tricks in the form of oils can be spread on door-handles or any other object that your target touches on a daily basis.
Tricks can be also ground up and put into the target’s food or drink. For instance:
If you’re after love, mixing your blood daily with your lover’s morning coffee will make sure they never stray.
If you want to cause your target extreme discomfort, grind up insect parts and place them in their food. This particular trick is called Live in You Things and will cause animals, such as snakes, to actually grow inside of your target. Eventually, your target will go mad, unless the trick is removed, of course.
Tricks can also be placed inside a person or pet that your target has regular contact with. The person or pet will gradually pass on the effects of the trick to your target.
In order to cause a target serious illness, death, or to possess them to the point of insanity, tricks can be placed in a bottle and buried in a graveyard. In order to carry out this specific trick, you need to place specific ingredients into a jar then place the jar inside a miniature coffin. Take the coffin to the graveyard and bury it and mark it with the target’s name.
The last part caught me totally off guard and I had to stop for a minute and try not to barf. No, not the grinding up insect parts, but the graveyard coffin part. Had Ivan really placed a graveyard trick on Sabrina? Is that why she was buried alive? That was the only logical explanation. Why else would she run off to the graveyard? I was tempted to run off to the graveyard and start digging. But was that really a wise and rational thing to do in the middle of the night when I had stones in my passway? No. That wasn’t a wise idea. Think Arelia. Think of a mature, rational plan that doesn’t involve running off to the cemetery again in the middle of the night during a storm.
I continued to read:
How to identify a trick or know if a trick has been placed on you:
The best way to identify a trick is to look for strange and unfamiliar odors especially in the food you eat.
If you find personal objects and belongings missing, be cautious, a trick may have been placed on you.
Tricks leave their target confused and out of touch with reality to the point where confusion becomes reality.
Physical pain that has no medical explanation most likely means a trick has been placed on you.
Discomfort especially in the stomach area that has no medical explanation most likely means a Live in You Things trick has been placed on you.
A loud clap of thunder jolted me out of my thoughts, the rain grew louder and the electricity disappeared again. Great. Clearly, it was a sign that the graveyard plan would have to wait for now. I lit a white candle that rested on the oak desk.
The only thing I could do was put the gris-gris on Sabrina and find where Ivan had placed my trick. However, that was easier said than done. How was I going to help Sabrina when I couldn’t even help myself? Maybe Aunt Mae was right and the spiritual bath and oils had fended off whatever had tried to get inside of her. Tomorrow, I would try to convince her to leave Darkwood- maybe the further away she was from this place the better it would be for her.
But what if tomorrow was too late? I needed to stop Ivan now. So, I decided to look in the one place I knew Ivan was most likely to hide the trick. The kitchen.
I grabbed the candle and made my way to the kitchen. I was going to search every inch of the place even if it took me all night.
I started in the gigantic refrigerator and carefully opened and sniffed every jar, bottle and container I could find. Nothing seemed suspicious or out of place. I didn’t find any weird powders, roots or herbs. None of my hair or blood. I opened every cabinet and searched every single shelf I could reach.
I headed to the pantry where there were countless rows of bottles, jars, bags and boxes of endless food and condiments. I opened all the cabinets and unscrewed as many jars as I could. Frustrated and in the dark I sat on the cool floor and tried to think. Nothing came to mind expect Ivan’s annoying voice.
You’ll never know.
What I really needed was a good night’s sleep. I was beyond exhausted and wasn’t getting anywhere, but I didn’t want to admit defeat, so I sat there. I sat there for what felt like forever staring at the single candle flame and wondering how I could possibly get out of this situation. I felt like screaming.
A soft knock on the pantry door interrupted my thoughts and panic gripped me as I slowly opened it. I wasn’t prepared to have another show down with Ivan right now.
“Lucus.” I felt a sudden surge of relief, safety, nervousness and joy wash over me when I saw him standing there with slightly tousled hair, dressed in his signature white t-shirt, his face half-illuminated by the light of a single candle. All of the ugliness seemed to suddenly disappear.
Throwing
all reason or desire to be cool out of the window, yet strangely aware of the one armpit hole I had in my t-shirt, I stood on my toes, gave him an enormous hug and then buried my nose into his warm neck. I inhaled as much as of him as I possibly could. He had a scent that somehow always managed to make me everything seem better. It was an aroma that was unidentifiable but uniquely Lucus. Spicy, sweet, earthy, melancholy yet exciting. I wanted to hold him forever because something told me the moment I let go he would disappear. I wasn’t ready to say good-bye when I’d barely even said hello.
Lucus graciously allowed me to sniff his neck for a few moments before he pulled me back and examined my demented expression. He looked as if he were going to say something but then changed his mind. Instead, he brought his lips to my neck and slowly, almost teasingly covered it in gentle kisses that made my knees weak. Then, he covered my mouth in a dizzying kiss that left me breathless. It was the kind of kiss that was sweet, dangerous and wholly intoxicating. The kind of kiss that was alive and full of possibilities.
Blood-filled kisses. Don’t say a word.
I looked up at him and tried my best to ignore the beads of blood that slowly trickled down his forehead. They’re not real, I thought as I closed my eyes.
Yes they are. Real as that stage you saw. Real as all those people.
After a few moments had passed, I opened one eye and then the other. I turned my head and meet Lucus’ patient eyes while doing my best to ignore the fact that he was still covered in blood. Knowing that there was no point in pretending to be sane, I blurted out exactly what I was feeling.
“I hear voices and see things. Maybe I need to be committed. Nothing is right and all I feel like doing is screaming.”
Yeah, queen, you do sound crazy.
Lucus took a deep breath. His expression was tense and his dark eyes narrow with worry. He ran his hand through my hair and lightly stroked my cheek. “Go on then.”
“Go on what?” I asked.
“Go on and scream.”
At first, I looked at him, unsure of what he was really saying. But then that’s exactly what I did. I closed my eyes, opened my mouth wide and screamed with an intensity I never knew I possessed. Angry, savage and brutally wild. I didn’t care who heard or what they thought about me. For what felt like a good five minutes, I shrieked and hollered like a banshee. I screamed for everything I couldn’t control or understand. I screamed for every unfair thing I couldn’t change. And most of all, I screamed for the entire situation. I screamed for every time I heard the phrase ‘just get over it’, and screamed for an overall feeling of helplessness that I was trying to fight off. I also screamed for guests like Mr. Dumpty who felt so entitled that they failed to realize that workers were human too. I had no idea why I decided to scream for that, aside from the fact that it felt really damn good, almost euphoric.
Afterwards, a rare calm flooded me. Strangely, I felt renewed and stronger. I opened my eyes slowly and was relieved to find that the walls were no longer covered in blood and neither was Lucus.
He gave me a wide smile and for a moment I felt terribly shy and horrified over my lack of poise and control. After all, it didn’t really matter that I was a voodoo queen and Lucus was under a curse, he was still a guy and was just a girl who was really into him. Being blessed by a very moody spirit did have its downside and episodes like this were one of them.
“Feel better?” he asked.
I nodded and tugged on my hair, unsure of how to act. How do you act after you have a psychotic breakdown in front of someone you want to impress? Do you carry on like nothing happened and smile sweetly? Do you talk about the weather or the stock market? Not that I had a clue about the stock market. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to act, so in true Arelia style, I examined my fingernails.
I gave him a shy smile. I examined him for a few seconds, thought about what had happened tonight, and then asked him a totally random question. “Why do people feel the need to possess one another?”
“Hmm.” He took a momentary pause. “I think it’s the only thing that gives people the illusion of control in a universe where we actually have very little. I suppose if people can’t control their own hearts, emotions and actions, they think by controlling others, they’ll somehow fill some emptiness within themselves. Why do you think?”
I shook my head and tried to make sense of why anyone thought they had the right to treat another person like an object. “I’m trying to figure that out,” I said, as I placed my arms around him and rested my head on his chest. “Thank you for helping out with Sabrina, by the way. How did you get her to stop crying, anyways?”
He grinned. “I begged her to open the door by apologizing repeatedly. When she finally did, she threw a very pointy shoe at me and told me that I wasn’t that good-looking and I’m lucky that I got to see her in lingerie. She then slapped me and called me a pathetic liar because I brainwashed you into believing that I was under a Voodoo curse. After a few more insults which I can’t clearly remember, she vowed to expose me for the fraud I am and said that if I hurt you she’ll kill me. Then Mae took over and somehow convinced her to take a bath. ”
I laughed when I should have been horrified. “She said that? She did that?” That meant we were going to be okay.
“She did.”
“I’m worried about her. Aunt Mae said that whatever lured her to the cemetery may have tried to possess her so I made this gris-gris for her. I’m going to try to slip it on her wrist while she’s sleeping- as creepy as that sounds, it’s the only way she’ll wear it. At least she’ll be safe for a few hours until we can be sure.”
“Let’s go. We can’t waste any time, can we now?”
I nodded. Lucus took my hand and lead me out of the pantry. I felt relieved that I didn’t have to explain my quasi-neurotic behavior to him. I loved the fact that he went with the flow and wasn’t at all weirded out by tricky spirits, dancing skeletons, possible cases of possession, or my mood swings and somewhat insane behavior. Even though the situation we were in was complicated, he wasn’t. He made the inexplicable feel normal. He made me feel normal. As pathetic as it was to admit, for once, I wanted to be taken care of and I wanted to be loved.
However, instead of being giddy with joy, inside I was terribly sad and conflicted. I couldn’t get Mait Carrefour's words out of my head. Give Louis to me and say good-bye to Lucus. Don’t be selfish. Be brave and give them both what they need. You’ve got your whole life ahead of you, but they’ve already lived theirs. I was beginning to realize that if Ivan didn’t let me help Lucus and insisted on harming Sabrina then maybe I would have no choice but to take his offer, but the thought of walking out of Darkwood and leaving Lucus alone here for eternity was one that was…
“Are you alright?” asked Lucus once we reached the top of the stairs.
“Yeah. I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere,” I said, as I gave him a quick kiss before I slipped into my bedroom.
Chapter 24
The Spark
The room was dimly lit with three white candles, so I didn’t have to scurry around in the dark. After managing to place the gris-gris around Sabrina’s wrist without waking her up, I took a deep breath and observed her for a few seconds. Her lips were slightly parted and there was a subtle stream of drool trekking down the right side of her mouth, meaning all was well.
I slowly slipped my hand under her pillow and felt for a possible trick. I peeked under the bed but there was nothing there expect for a pair of sky high heels. Quietly, I opened all seven pieces of her Louis Vuitton travel set and pulled out dresses, shoes, shirts, skirts but found nothing. After opening and carefully sniffing what felt like a million pots of concealer, moisturizers and various other products, I still had no luck. I opened every dresser drawer and searched every possible place I could think of, I still didn’t find a trick. I finally gave up and decided that I would wait until the morning light before searching every inch of Darkwood.
I examined Sabrina again an
d felt the sudden need to speak to her right away even though I probably should have let her sleep. I tended to be pretty annoying when I was determined. I wanted to make sure she was okay. I wanted to make sure that we were okay.
“Sabrina.” I kneeled down by her side and gently shook her. “Sabrina,” I said again.
“Hmmm,” she muttered.
“Wake up.” I shook her. I needed to talk to her now.
“What?”
“Open your eyes.” I climbed in bed beside her and shook her again.
Slowly her eyes opened. I let a huge sigh of relief when they met mine. They weren’t red or anything. I had no idea why I was expecting them to be red. “Arelia. What’s going on?”
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m sleepy.”
“Have you noticed anything weird?” What types of signs was I going to tell her to look for? Looking for signs of possession wasn’t exactly like diagnosing the common cold.
“Yeah, that bath smelt funny and you’re stupid.”
“I already said I’m sorry. How many times do I have to keep apologizing? What do you want me to do? Are you going to disown me? Cold shoulder? Weeks of silence? Sigh. We’ve been through it all before.”
She shook her head and sighed. “You’re stupid for being here with me when a totally hot guy is in love with you and is waiting for on the other side of this door.”
I unwillingly grinned. “You’re not mad at me anymore?”
“Arelia, I may be a bitch but I’m not stupid. I see the way he looks at you. I never thought you actually liked him back so I thought hey what the hell. But it sucks because I actually did fall for him. So next time let me in on what’s going on so I don’t turn into a Hurricane-infused lingerie-wearing maniac, please. But I still don’t believe you about the curse thing. I don’t understand why you can’t just be honest with me.”