Snippet

I’ve gotten 900 solid Twitter followers at least, so here’s a celebratory snippet.

My protag goes to visit an Obeah Woman, with reservations.

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As I put on the jumbie bead bracelet, the weight of the air suddenly disappeared.

I fingered the bracelet on my wrist. “So. This would help me?”

“It’ll protect you. But it will also help you have some control over those… dreams, as you call it. Pierce that fog surrounding you.”

“So there’s no way I can rid myself of it?”

The Obeah woman’s mouth widened into a knowing smile. “Yuh bite off more than you can chew, eh? You want to go back to the old monster you were before? Where things were simple? You didn’t have to think about right or wrong, because it didn’t matter to you? Having to care is not fun?”

Her smile faded. “No.”

I could feel my features growing stony. I could tell she saw them growing stony, too. I grabbed her by her forearm.

She took hold of my forearm with the most casual of motions but stopped me as surely as if I’d been suddenly bonded to the earth. I struggled. My arm burned. It’s not my flesh she was hurting, but something bad or broken inside me. Maybe the brokenness and I were so close I couldn’t tell the difference anymore. She let go and I collapsed, falling to my knees but afraid to move for the moment. I was breathing heavy all of a sudden.

Her eyes studied me.

“Try going to someone else to fix it. They’ll probably just tell you you have a loa.”

I got to my feet. I folded my arms. One of them felt bruised. I rubbed my arm unconsciously to soothe the residual burning.

Her expression softened. A hand thoughtfully went to her chin.

“Think of it this way. How else would you be able to trace the way to who sent this Adze to you? If it is in you, a part of you that you can’t consume, then trace its thoughts. It knows. It has an interest in its safety, in its self-preservation. It made its presence felt here today. Use that to your advantage. Work with it?”

My face wrinkled in discomfort.

“But that’s not what yuh want, is it. You jus’ want it gone?”

I stared at this elder long. I nodded. If I have to, I’ll trace the path some other way, somehow, than have this happening.

“Arrite. I have things to do. If you have need of me… come again.” The knowing smile reappeared. She turned away.

I parted the beaded curtain, and showed myself out.

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