The Grim Reaper's Mate

Chapter 2

“What should I call you?” asked Summer as she took another sip of the tea before it went cold.

“I have been called a lot of names but I like the one best that my mother gave me. You can call me Luna, but not for long,” she said as she took the cup from Summer and went back to the place which was kitchen. Summer could not understand the meaning of the last part of her sentence but she could understand that this was one weird chick. She could not make out the meaning of the half the things she was speaking.

“So Luna, how long have you been staying here?’ asked Summer as she turned all around to look at the house.

“Long enough, more than I would have liked rather,” said the girl who came back and sat down as she smiled sadly at Summer.

“Don’t you feel lonely? Here? I mean you live here all alone so much away from the town, aren’t you scared?” asked Summer, since she was getting scared now with every passing moment. There was something which was not right but she could not place it. It was sticking out like a small invisible thorn in this place but she could not put her finger on it.

“Anyone else might be scared but I know this place like the back of my hand, so there is no reason to be. But the question is who are you running from?” asked the girl with her brows raised in a weird way which looked downright spooky and Summer felt that Luna was peering in her soul. That was not a question that she expected.

“Why would I be running from someone? I am not dear, you are mistaken. The truth is I live in the town, I have a voodoo store. I just drove in order to get some air and clear my head when my car broke down and I…” said Summer but she was sharply interrupted by the other woman.

“Any sentence which starts with the truth is, is a lie in reality. But I am not going to ask you since you are clearly going to lie any way. Just know this that if you are lying you should be able to differentiate between the web of lies you are weaving and truth or you will be the first one to get trapped in the web. But you were saying something about voodoo store? Please tell me more, I am a dabbler myself as you can see,” said Luna as she gestured around the room and Summer nodded giving a tight-lipped smile. This girl was too intuitive for her own good.

“Well in the town everyone knows me by the name of The Voodoo Queen. People come to me with their problems which they cannot solve with medicine and therapy and I help them with my magic and spells and charms. I feel good when I help them in this way, it feels like I am giving something back to the people,” said Summer as she smiled at her own words. She knew very well in her black heart that there wasn’t any lie which was bigger than this. Luna smiled at her knowingly.

“Do you like stories Summer Agnes Martha Williams? Your grandma used to tell you every night until she died, right? You used to love them, so would you like hearing a story now?” asked Luna, her smile still playing on her lips but Summer had never been more spooked in her entire life.

“Who the hell are you? And how do you know all these things about me?” asked Summer, in a loud voice as she got up from her chair.

“Sit down Summer,” said Luna, and there was a feral gleam in her eyes as she spoke the words and the power of command behind them was so compelling that Summer could not help but sit back down.

“This is my story Summer. I am sure you are gonna love this one. You see there was this woman, once upon a time in a small village in an island far away from here. She was with child. Now they were very excited since it was going to be their first. On the night of a full moon she gave birth under the open sky beside a lake all by herself. Imagine her surprise when she found that she was carrying twins, a boy and a girl. But it seemed that the boy did not want his sister to be with him even in the womb and there was a mark of a claw on the girl’s back and skin under the boy’s nails. The mother was a member of a tribe called Taino and she knew that there was something wrong with her children. She took them to the Head Priest of the Tribe who said that the boy would be the cause of the death of his sister and the sister would come back for revenge, back from death. The mother was shaken to the core when she heard the curse but she tried her best to shield her daughter from her son. They both grew up together as slaves just like their parents. The landowner, the white man who owned them, since they were born into slavery used the skills of the boy, his voodoo skills to conquer over his enemies and to take more land. It was both the good and bad of times, and no time is a good time for those who were born in slavery unlike white men who think they were superior to us. But the sister knew that she needed to be saved and she did something which her brother did not know she was capable of as a result of which he decapitated another girl of their age who looked like his sister but was actually not. What he did after that, do you know?” asked Luna and Summer who was sitting there mute with fear and suspicion that this might be the myth that the people of the town spoke about nodded her head.

“But you should be knowing that Summer, after all it is your story, isn’t it? The story of the Voodoo Queen, the one who was blessed by the Goddess Mawu and had been granted immortality for seeking revenge from her twin soul, don’t you think?” asked Luna and Summer whimpered out in fear. She could not breath, it was like someone had stolen the air from her lungs and was gradually choking her. Her heart was racing and all she wanted to do was to run away from this woman who was still smiling at her but a choked cry came out of her parched throat making it a sound like a guttural groan.

“Do you not want to hear the rest of the story Summer Williams?” asked Luna and Summer found that she could not get up from the chair any longer and neither could she move in any way. She had been rendered immobile by some unseen force but what she saw made her already cold heart paralyzed. There were snakes climbing up her feet and entwining themselves with her leg and the chair so that she could not move.

“Since you are so enraptured with my words I must go on, shouldn’t I?” asked Luna as she did not wait for any further reaction from Summer and continued,” The brother when he found out that he had been duped was mad with rage and he sold his soul to the God of Death so that he could have the time and power to find out his twin. He did find out actually and what he did was unspeakable, but you are my special guest, aren’t you now? You can see that,” said Luna as she started removing the beads and the necklaces she was wearing.

When she was finished the head which was attached with the neck until now slowly dropped and tilted to one side, like it happens after being severed off but the head was not completely severed off, it was still hanging to the torso, by a thread. Luna was still smiling as she was doing all this.

Summer thought that she had screamed out but she could hear no sound. Her tongue was frozen up with fear, her eyes were protruding out like golf balls willing to come out of the sockets at any moment, a drop of tear rolled down her cheek. Luna placed back the head carefully on her neck and she said,” This was what he did, and you see Summer, I have been waiting for a long time, quite a long time to repay back the favour. After all I should know, isn’t it? I am the one after whom you have named yourself.”

Fear was sitting on her nose and mouth like a pillow which allowed enough air for her to function but not enough to allow her to move and paralyze her all the same.

“Don’t be scared Summer. This is your destiny, after all, the debts that you have collected from your blood needs to be paid in blood, doesn’t it?” asked Luna, still smiling as she wore back the beads again.” A thousand moons have passed since he left my body in this swamp, and hundreds of moons were there when the men came, sometimes in one or twos but never a woman before. Never a woman who would serve my purpose. You are going to be my, what do they say, that word?”

“Slave,” said Summer, softly and Luna gasped out in outrage.

“Of course not dear, how can I do that to you. Oh I recall now, this man he was the one with the one machine with the one you can talk to others, right, Hotline, you, dear Summer Agnes Martha Williams, the destroyer and murder of your family, the thief who has swindled people and gave them false hope are going to be my hotline to hell. There is a curse, you see, I have been dying to place on one woman for so long but never have been able to but tonight Goddess Mawu, has finally been pleased with me. No no, dearie, don’t cry, you won’t feel a thing at all,” said Luna as Summer finally had been able to disentangle the snakes from her legs and she ran out of the room stumbling down on the step and then getting up and running again.

Luna stood there patiently,” Foolish girl, there is nowhere to run. And she does not realize that, does she Georgie?”

Summer ran down the path only to find a ledge with nothing but a sheer drop below. The moon shone down on her mockingly and Summer turned back only to find Luna standing close behind her.

“The debts must be paid, dear girl. There is nowhere to run,” said Luna but Summer could see her Grandma standing there in the doorway of the house that was burning and her entire family burnt down with her. The fire that she had started in the barn because she could not stop them from bullying her, if she knew that her Grandma would be home on that Saturday night she would never do that but fate worked in mysterious ways.

“It’s time to come home darling,” her Grandma said as she put out her hand forth from inside the burning house. Summer smiled at her Grandma as she took her hand and went inside.