"What did he say?"
That was the first thing the Coterie asked me when I had come back from the undercroft. They all stood in the living room, waiting for me to come through the basement door. And when I did, they bombarded me. However, they saw it on my face - they knew something was wrong.
"What happened?" Nene asked me, her voice graver than before. I didn't say anything. I didn't know exactly what to say, really. The words they wanted to hear did not exist; they would never hear them.
I sat down on the couch. None of them sat with me, except for Aza, who walked over to the plush seats and sat down right next to me.
"Nothing," I finally said. Silence prevailed. The
** I didn't know where to start. Realistically, how would you even start with a creature like Hezekiah Mercier? He didn't want to answer any of my questions. Our interaction earlier that day was proof enough of that. So frankly, me being down in the undercroft again with my pajamas on and a candle in my hand was almost counterproductive. However, that instance earlier, I was under the supervision of the Coterie; the questions I asked were the questions they wanted to know the answers to. This time, as Hezekiah and I stood across from each other this late and forbidden in the night, I had different questions. The tides had shifted significantly that day, and I could no longer trust anyone in the house. The only person I felt I could trust had run off back into the city, practically exiled by the Coterie she belonged to. She was
** That night dragged on like a relentless virus - slow, agonizing and painful. I didn't sleep - I couldn't sleep. The spirits wouldn't let me - they were all around me, watching me. Mama must have welcomed them into our home in addition to letting them into her heart. But it wasn't just the spirits I felt (they were a quiet and respectful bunch), but the thought of Hezekiah running through my mind that made it impossible to sleep. I sat on the bed, hands shaking from anxiety, neck pulsing in pain, wondering what was happening to him. Did his lungs still feel like they were filled with boiling oil? Did he still struggle for breath? Throughout the night, I kept trying my methods of escape, hoping that the latch on the door would unlock or the window would open. But still, they re
I didn't know Mikael well. I knewofhim - he was the late Tia Valeria's novitiate. One of them. The other had died with everyone else in her House, leaving him as the sole survivor. He was young like the rest of us - an infant in voodooism. He was a lengthy, skinny man; I only ever saw him dressed in white which commonly swallowed him whole. This time, however, he was in pajamas close to the color of his skin - a light brown. Caramel, I suppose. His eyes were tired and heavy but his posture was alert and rigid. His hair, short and curly, was frizzy. His mouth had a natural pout, and his nose was narrow but a bit rounded at the tip. A handsome young man Mikael was, but clearly naive and impressionable - a victim of trauma. I'm surprised he volunteered to come with us, especially since he would be face-to-face with T
Everyone in the living room had suddenly gone quiet as the banging against the door became louder. Growling and snarling were heard on the other side as if it pained Hezekiah to be kept alone on the other side. The Coterie and everyone in the congregation stared motionlessly at the door, holding onto each other and whimpering at everybangagainst the door. Mama looked at the six of us who ventured down there. She saw the state that we were in, saw our faces, and knew just how grave the situation was. I knew Aza's words rung in her head as she waited for Hezekiah to bust down the door. You should have fed him, Alize. You should have fed him. Suddenly, Mama grabbed my shoulders and looked me in the eyes; I was still in shock, unable
** The flames, suddenly, disappeared as if they never existed. But the altar, and everything around it, was burned to ashes. I was stunned speechless; I couldn't move. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. What I had seen. Flames reaching up to the ceiling had erupted, the female spirit who spoke to me seemed to dance in them, and then suddenly, these flames were gone. ' I stared at the destroyed altar before trying to snap back into my senses. I walked over to the burned altar, noticing the matchbox. There was only one match that wasn't completely charred and beyond uses. I picked it up, but only held it. I could have tried to burn the parchments again, but the spirit would probably come back. However, there was something else in me that prevented me from burning the parchments
**I stayed quiet, though there were more than enough questions floating about in my head.I watched silently as Mama tried to patch up my wound. It was sunrise, which alieved only a portion of our anxiety."There," Mama said, tightening the bandage around my arm. "That should hold you off until we can get you stitched up."I barely heard these words coming out of her mouth. I gazed out of the window, looking at the sunrise. Somehow, I wondered if those vampires were burning; if they were caught outside when the sun rays broke the horizon, burning to a definite death. I thought of this, over and over again the higher the sun rose in the lavender sky. Perhaps I didn't wish this death upon all of them; I couldn't help but imagine
** The smell of rich spices and sausages filled up Miss Aza's home once she and I made the journey downstairs. The Coterie was making gumbo - a huge pot of it for everyone that sat around in the living room. The Coterie was in the kitchen when we made it downstairs, whereas everyone sat on the couch or on the floor, their clothes still dirty and tattered. All them stopped their chatter when they saw me. Everyone went quiet, plagued with questions that they didn't know how to ask. Kizzy, Esther, Imani, and Rocio sat together and stood together when their eyes landed on me. They probably assumed I was dead. They probably thought that I was a lost cause. But I wasn't. I was there, in the flesh, staring at them and waiting for one of them to say something. But none of them did. I wanted to say something - I wanted to tell them of the
** I spent one minute and sixteen seconds looking at them. Aza and Hezekiah. I spent one minute and sixteen seconds looking at Aza and Hezekiah, back and forth, deep into their eyes, carving out the bridges of their noses, the curvature of their ample lips, and the creases of their brows. I stared at the features they shared until they were one - until I was able to believe that Miss Aza Okoye and Hezekiah Mercier were related. Well, it was actually Camile Mercier. That was Miss Aza's legal name - Camile Aza Mercier-Okoye. And from that, she went by Miss Aza Okoye. Aza and Hezekiah didn't say anything as I looked at them. They knew that I was still in disbelief. In shock. Hezekiah crossed his arms over his chest and wait
** When the day was over, I sat on my bed in my room, staring at the blank walls and listening to the insects make music outside in the night. I couldn't help but smile, and I was eager for the next day I would spend with Sajida. The entire day consisted of working on my meditative skills and reading spell books, but it made me want more. I needed more. When I was around Sajida, I saw a future for myself that I could never see when I was around the Coterie. And despite Sajida's claim that her cooking wouldn't be a daily occurrence, we ended up having gumbo for dinner; she admitted that she had begun prepping for it that morning before I woke up. I looked down at my hands as I sat on the bed. There was nothing interesting about them; they were normal hands. They were not Sajida's
** I waited in the living room of Sajida's treehouse. Sasi One had directed me to a chair once I had come up the ladder; Sajida wasn't present. "Mere will be down shortly," she said to me, her skin even more sickly looking than before and her teeth seemingly moments away from falling out due to rot and decay. "Would you like a beverage? Perhaps a cup of tea? Water?" I nodded, "Water would be nice." Sasi One smiled even wider. "Be right back!" she said, pivoting and sashaying down a hallway to the kitchen. I sat alone with my backpack on my lap, looking around at my surroundings. The treehouse wasn't as frightening to me as it was before, and neither was the bayou. The journey here felt like a normality. Maybe it was because th
I wanted to remember what it was like to be possessed by my djab, but it was an event that would not come back to me. But everyone else around me had seen what I became during my body's surrender to Marie Laveau, and they could not see me the same because of it. All of the priests and priestesses that attended the Council's party the night before were hounding the Coterie with questions about what happened to me. Word had spread that I was possessed by Marie Laveau's spirit, while other rumors consisted of me being a demon, a witch, an incarnate of a voodoo god. Regardless of the validity of these rumors, there was no denying that what everyone witnessed was an anomaly of sorts; Marie Laveau had been quiet since her death, so to now harness my body as her vessel raised a lot of questions about me. I was no longer just Madam Dumont's only daughter. People knew my name. And they w
** When I awoke, the sun had already risen. It poured into my room, filling it with warmth. I sat up but very slowly; my head was throbbing to the point of it being hard to concentrate on where I was. It took me a few moments to realize that I was in my bedroom, lying in my bed, in my mama's house. The last thing I remembered from the night prior was Abraham threatening to kill Miss Aza. With this memory, I jumped out of bed in a panic, wondering if he had succeeded and oblivious to the events that preceded his threat. I ran out of the room, through the quiet hall and downstairs, yelling her name. The longer the silence carried, the larger my fears grew, I imagined that everyone was at a service for Aza or burying her body in
I have tried with every fiber of my being to remember the rest of that night from my own account. I have gone through multiplelave tets, have spoken to my ancestors and to the loa, have channeled my djab, have convened with other mambos in an attempt to remember the events that preceded Abraham ordering Hezekiah to give Aza the Gift of Darkness, but it doesn't come to me. Some have told me it's common to black out after possession, so I have settled at that conclusion. I only remember the moment right before Marie Laveau possessed me and the moments after she abandoned my body. Everything between was told to me by others, so this account is stitched together by other witnesses; it is not my own, though I hope it will be one day. **
** For some reason, I felt like I had been waiting for this meeting with Abraham my entire life. Walking towards the balcony after the meeting was over, this feeling of forbiddance deep within me as I had snuck off while the Coterie was not looking, I felt like I was reaching the end of the race and near claiming my prize. But what prize was there to claim from him? Knowledge? Deceit? I was unsure. I wouldn't find out until I opened the balcony door in front of me. The balcony had to be reached by entering the master bedroom, which was, of course, unused and completely empty, save for a bed and a dresser, both covered with a white sheet. The room was completely dark, and the only source of light came from the moon outside shining through the balcony doors.
** Abraham's hand was cold and lifeless, like the gradual shift of the air in the room. My hand looked small in his—puny. His fingers completely enveloped mine. The music, which was still playing, was a slow and almost melancholy piano number, however, Abraham wanted to dance to it, so we did. My left hand rested on his shoulder (which wasn't an easy feat; I had to stretch a bit) and his right hand rested directly underneath my arm. We started off slow; I followed his lead. My body was stiff out of extreme nervousness. I couldn't look at him; I looked at his bowtie, which was nearly eyelevel. He knew that I was overtaken with nerves; he could sense it. Smell it. We moved slowly in our little space, the entire world, it seemed, watching.
** There were eyes on me from every corner of the room. All from different factions, and all for different reasons. Never would I think I would be at a level of such importance at a function such as this one—with vampires and witches and voodoo priestesses, all high and low in rank, but still more significant than me. However, I was more influential than I thought; I was more significant than I thought. And I was coming to terms with this newfound jump in rank. Yet it wasn't the time to bask in this new knowledge. I was here to find a different type of knowledge—from Abraham. It would be nearly impossible to find a good time to speak to Abraham and ask him what I wanted to know; there were people everywhere, and most of these people were infected with the disease that not only g
** I had locked myself in the guest bedroom with the black box as my only form of company that night. No one came to me; I was left alone, which heightened my suspicions about the truth I had brought to them. I sat on the floor, still dressed in white and covered in dirt and dried sweat. The ball gown lied on the bed, staring back at me. I thought about trying it on; I didn't need to know how it fit, since Jeffrey assured me that the dress was correct to my measurements. But I wanted to see myself in this dress. Is this how Russell Van Doren remembered me one hundred and fifty years in the past—wearing this gown when it was common attire at the time? I expected Hezekiah to knock on the window and let himself in the room, trying to explain himself and his actions; his reasoning f