by Fey Suarez
Brandy was floating through a surreal bliss. The shark disappeared as something pulled her deeper into the sea. Brandy looked at her hands and saw someone holding her wrists. Brandy tried to pull away but couldn’t. Someone was drowning her! Brandy pulled and pulled again. She began thrashing but the person still wouldn’t release her. Brandy opened her eyes and saw a skull staring back at her. In the eye sockets were two amethysts glowing purple.
Sheila… thought Brandy. She wants it back.
* * *
Brandy opened her eyes and saw the sky. Wispy clouds twisted and curled through the sky far above her.
“Brandy. Brandy.” Someone slapped her face. Brandy’s eyes focused. Miranda was holding her hand and Ryan was slapping her face and repeating her name. He smiled when her eyes focused on his.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“You tell us. You were swimming and the next thing we knew you were holding on to the shark and he was taking you for a dive.”
“Sheila!” Brandy quickly sat up. The oxygen mask that was covering her mouth and nose was pulled askew.
“That’s Miranda,” Ryan said.
“No. The amethyst. It’s hers. Sheila wants it back.”
“Sheila?” Ryan repeated.
“How is she?” Bill asked, walking up.
“She seems okay.”
“You gave us a scare,” Bill told her. “We’ll be into Cienfuegos shortly. They can check you out at the clinic.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m just glad you’re okay. If it hadn’t been for Ryan’s quick thinking I don’t know what would have happened,” he said. “Rest up.”
Brandy refused to go to the clinic. She wanted to find Jones. Ryan and Miranda stayed with her while the rest of the dive club went back out. They had their gear and were going to dive at a popular site with half a dozen sunken ships. They didn’t want to waste the rest of their day because Brandy had almost drowned, and she didn’t blame them.
“We have to find him,” Brandy said. “I need that amethyst. Don’t ask me how I know, but I do. Sheila wants it back.”
“Sheila wants it back?” Ryan shook his head.
“I can’t expect you to understand. I don’t even understand what I’m talking about. Still, you can’t deny that stone has mystical powers. Something must have linked us. Maybe my blood when I cut myself on it. I’ve bled on that stone and maybe miniscule pieces of it have gotten into me. We’ve been bonded. I’ve been having dreams, too.”
“Dreams, visions. I think you’re nuts!” Ryan insisted.
“I believe you. I’ll help,” Miranda told her friend.
“And we don’t need your help, Ryan,” Brandy insisted.
“Like hell you don’t. You’re both off your rockers. Besides, if either of you touch that stone around Jones you’ll be hornier than a bitch in heat.”
“So you’ll help us?”
Ryan sighed and looked steadily at Brandy and then Miranda. “I’ll help,” he finally agreed.
* * *
“Your friend, Jones, is in prison,” Armando said when the trio arrived back at the hotel. “The police called. He was detained for indecent exposure.”
“Indecent exposure?” Miranda asked.
“He was having sex on a bench in the Plaza Marti,” Armando informed her.
“Oh.”
“Way to go, Jones,” Ryan said.
“Jones had something of mine,” Brandy said. “An amethyst.”
“If he had it with him then it’s at the police station.”
“Will they give it to me?”
“You can try.” Armando shrugged. “You never know with the Cuban police.”
“Great,” Brandy said, exasperated.
“My uncle works at the police station. If you want I can talk to him.”
Brandy’s eyes lit up. “That would be great, thanks!”
Ryan, Brandy and Miranda didn’t move. They stood staring at Armando behind the desk.
“What? Now?” he asked.
“Please?” Miranda smiled.
Armando looked behind his shoulder. “Okay,” he said hesitantly and picked up the telephone.
They watched his face and listened to his half of the conversation in Spanish. He smiled into the phone and talked quickly. His voice changed to serious, then he smiled again and hung up.
“Well?”
“No amethyst.”
“The girl must have it,” Ryan said.
“She wasn’t arrested. She ran away,” Armando said.
“We’ve got to find her,” Brandy said.
“Can I help?” asked Armando.
“Keep your ears open for anyone having sex with anybody she can,” Ryan told him.
Armando looked questioningly at Ryan. “Go ahead and tell him,” Brandy said.
Ryan told Armando the story, finishing with, “And now Brandy’s convinced it’s cursed and she has to throw it back into the ocean or else— Or else what, Brandy?” Ryan asked her.
“I don’t know,” Brandy admitted.
Armando looked at Brandy. “So that’s why you and I…”
“Yes,” Brandy answered.
He looked at Miranda. “And you and I…”
“Yes,” Miranda said. “I didn’t realize that you and she…”
“And when you and he—” Armando motioned between Brandy and Ryan “—on the dance floor, and you and I…”
Brandy nodded. “Yep.”
Armando smiled. “I think I’m feeling sick all of a sudden.”
“Sick?” Ryan asked.
“That’s what I’ll tell my boss so I can go with you to find that amethyst.” Armando smiled.
Chapter Thirteen
“This is it,” Armando said, looking at a number painted on the door frame.
An old mulatto woman answered the door. She was dressed in a white shirt and skirt. Armando said something and she began hollering at him in a high-pitched voice. Armando continued to speak and gestured towards the Americans standing next to him. Abruptly the old woman stopped talking and stepped to the side.
“She wants us to come inside,” Armando said.
They stepped through the low doorway and followed the woman into a small room. A teenaged girl sat on the floor surrounded by bloody chicken feathers.
“This is her granddaughter,” Armando said. “She was with Jones in the plaza. As you could see at the door, the grandmother isn’t happy.”
The room was filled with dried plants and herbs. A pungent odor filled the air. Brandy gasped when she saw a dead chicken lying inside a circle drawn on the floor.
“By the way, the old woman’s a santera, a witch,” Armando said, stepping over the chicken.
Brandy and Miranda looked at each other with wide eyes. Neither had ever met a witch.
The woman continued speaking, pointing to her granddaughter constantly.
Armando translated. “She says that her granddaughter was a virgin until today. She has the amethyst and she’s tried purifying it and her granddaughter but she hasn’t been able to. Her granddaughter is ruined.”
The woman circled the dead, featherless chicken, and continued. “She took out the chicken’s heart and put the stone in its place inside the chicken. She offered incense and even tried bleeding her granddaughter and nothing will remove the curse.” Armando interpreted.
“Tell her what’s happened to me.”
Armando quickly explained Brandy’s dreams and the episode in the ocean.
The woman didn’t move a muscle for one whole minute.
She finally spoke in Spanish directly to Brandy. Armando interpreted. “She says she’s communicating with you then,” he said. “She wants something. Give it to her.”
“She wants the amethyst.”
“She wants her soul. Her life force, her very soul was put into this amethyst. You have to set her free. You have to return it to her.”
“Armando, tell her Sheila’s bones are no longer in the oc
ean. Some archaeologists took them out. I don’t know where they are now.”
The witch picked up the chicken and put her hand inside its body. She said something to Armando and he opened his hand. She placed the amethyst on his palm and closed his fingers around the bloody stone.
“She says we must find the bones and return them to the ocean with the amethyst or else whatever part of Sheila that exists will take your body to house her soul. She says you shouldn’t touch the amethyst anymore because each time you do you lose a piece of yourself to Sheila and she gets stronger.”
Brandy looked shocked. “How do we get the bones?”
Armando shrugged. “I guess we’ll have to steal them.”
* * *
“How do we steal bones from the Cuban government?” Brandy asked back at the hotel.
“This is ridiculous.” Ryan lay back on the bed. “I can’t believe I actually believe this shit.”
“Why don’t you see what you can find out from Bill about the bones?” Brandy told him.
“Fine,” he agreed, standing up.
“I want to come with you,” Miranda said.
“I have to stay hidden from my boss so he doesn’t find out I’m not really sick.”
“I’ll stay with you,” Brandy said to Armando with a sigh.
Ryan and Miranda left, and Armando took the amethyst out of his pocket. It was covered in dried chicken’s blood.
“This is disgusting,” he said, and walked into the bathroom and turned on the tap. “So it was all the amethyst. I couldn’t have gotten you by myself?” he asked.
Brandy walked to the doorway separating the bathroom from the main room. “Not in that office, no.” Brandy smiled.
“I risked getting fired for you.” Armando grinned, showing off his white teeth.
“Hmph.” Brandy retorted with a smile.
“Can I offer you this stone again?”
Brandy cocked her head.
“I’m only joking.” Armando dried the amethyst and set it down. He watched as Brandy’s eyes followed the amethyst and stared intently at it.
“I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt to touch it one more time,” Brandy said. “I just want to touch it. I want to feel it in my hand one more time.”
“No,” Armando replied.
“I found it. It’s mine.” She reached for it.
“You’re not going to touch it.” Armando grabbed Brandy’s hand before she could reach the purple gem. “Don’t,” he said gently.
“Please?” Brandy said weakly.
“I see I’ll have to do something to keep your mind off the amethyst.” Armando wiped his hands on his pants, pushed Brandy into the bedroom and firmly closed the bathroom door behind him.
Out of sight of the amethyst Brandy said, “I was only joking.” She looked at Armando’s heated expression. “Armando…” Her voice trailed off.
Armando sat down and pulled Brandy with him. He gently nipped at her lower lip and delved his tongue into her mouth. Brandy kissed back, running her tongue along his white teeth and pulling at his bottom lip.
“If I’m going to have you again it’s because you want to, not because you’re compelled to by some…force,” he said searching for a word.
“What makes you think you can have me again?”
Armando deftly slipped his hands up her shirt and found her breasts. Brandy sighed as he teased her nipples with his thumbs through her bra.
“I can tell when a woman is attracted to me, and you couldn’t fight our mutual attraction if you tried. You want me.” He teased her lips with his tongue.
Brandy wanted to deny his words but they were true. The more time she spent with Armando the more she liked him.
“Why did you have to wear pants? This is Cuba. It’s too hot for pants.” he said tickling her crotch through the unwanted clothing.
Brandy felt a twinge of guilt. She wasn’t like this. She wasn’t easy. It had to be Sheila, she decided. The old santera had said that Sheila was taking her over, little by little, each time she touched the rock, right? Brandy decided not to think about it. She would enjoy the moment and not try to analyze it.
Armando gently freed Brandy’s breasts from the thin piece of lace covering them and pushed her into the pillows. A willing participant, Brandy watched as Armando slowly inched her shirt up until her breasts were visible. White flesh surrounded by golden skin testified to her fondness for tanning. She watched Armando’s freckled fingers touch and tease her. His mouth descended on her nipples and Brandy had to close her eyes with pleasure. Armando suckled her breasts. “You’re beautiful,” he breathed, before turning his attentions back to her mouth.
Brandy had never realized how velvety soft a tongue could be. Armando’s tongue twisted with her own, locking their mouths together while his hand continued caressing her silky skin.
A groan escaped from Brandy’s throat.
“I told you you couldn’t fight it,” Armando said, gently taking Brandy’s earlobe between his teeth.
Brandy reached to unbutton her pants, but stopped short when she heard the electronic key slide into the lock. Rushing back to reality she pushed Armando away and quickly pulled her shirt down as Armando pushed on the television remote.
Miranda noticed Brandy’s flushed face and a pillow strategically placed on Armando’s lap. “Where’s the amethyst?” she asked.
“In the bathroom.” Armando said innocently. “What did you find out?”
Brandy was jealous of his composure. She didn’t think she could coherently put two words together.
“The bones are at the archaeology department at the University of Cienfuegos,” Ryan told them. “We can go tonight after they’re closed.”
“Classes should be over by eight or nine,” Armando said. “Maybe we should go around ten. Just to be safe.”
Miranda eyed Brandy and looked back at Armando. “What do we do until then?”
Armando smiled. “Help me sneak out of here and I’ll show you Cienfuegos.”
Chapter Fourteen
They took a taxi to the university and asked to be let out at the dormitories.
“There are a lot of foreign students here. The taxi driver shouldn’t wonder about why we’re here,” Armando told his companions. “Of course, most of them are from Norway.”
“What are students from Norway— Never mind.” Miranda shook her head.
The building is that one over there.” Armando pointed to a five-story building across the wide boulevard.
“There aren’t many people here,” Brandy pointed out.
“Wasn’t that the idea?” Ryan asked, a little too curtly. He wasn’t used to being set aside by women, and he could tell that Brandy’s interests were more inclined to the Cuban than to him. She’d been quite attentive to Armando all afternoon.
The small group crossed the street and walked around to the back of the building.
“I hope we don’t get caught. I think Bill would kill us if we got put in jail with Jones,” Miranda said quietly.
“If we’re lucky,” Armando began as he walked toward a metal emergency exit door, “it’ll be open.” He smiled as the door swung on its hinges.
“That was easy,” Brandy whispered.
“These are just the classrooms,” Armando said. “The offices should be more difficult to break into. There aren’t any guards but there are a lot of locked doors.”
“Which way?” asked Ryan.
“I think it’s this way,” Armando said, pointing. “I had physics and chemistry in this building.”
“Oh really, you studied here?” Brandy asked.
“I’ve got my degree in industrial engineering.”
“This is hardly the time for chitchat,” Ryan said.
“The archaeology offices are on the upper floors.”
They followed Armando up three flights of stairs and through the dark hallways, lit only by an occasional nightlight. They passed a wall of windows before they got to the wooden door with the word Arqu
elogia identifying the department. The lights were on inside the room and they could see wooden tables with plastic containers on them.