Cursed (34 page)

“Let me send you back with some tea,” Candace said quickly. “You will love it. Straight from Africa.” She rose and hurried behind a second curtain leading deeper into the store.

“All right.” Jayden glanced at the time. He was beginning to feel like he was suffocating in the back room. The images from the pep rally played over and over in his mind. Before she started coughing, the girl Adrienne had sung in the same voice he heard in the back of his mind.

He knew her. The feeling was stronger, just like his concern over the missing time and blackouts grew more demanding.

Normal people didn’t black out and wake up at a gas station. He couldn’t believe Kimmie would do anything like put a curse on him, but he couldn’t explain it either. Or why he’d brushed it off before, like it was no big deal when it could be indicative of a disease or illness.

Or a curse.

He was sweating. Jayden left the stifling back room for the café. It, too, felt too warm. He lingered in front of the counter, taking in the voodoo supplies and trinkets around the café.

“You okay, Jayden?” Tara asked, following. “You look pale. For you.” She peered up at him.

“Yeah, just … dehydrated, I think.”

“Candace says you can ask Kimmie to remove the hexes she put on you and Adrienne.”

“That stuff isn’t real.” Though he was beginning to think something unnatural was going on. He just wasn’t certain what. “Where did this Adrienne girl go? I didn’t see her at school today.”

“Kimmie ran her out this morning. I came here with her. She left a couple hours ago, and I stayed to learn more about voodoo from Candace,” Tara answered. “She’s really cool.”

“Right. Daddy will throw a fit if he catches you getting involved in this stuff.”

“Like you with a poor, superstitious girl?”

I’m with Kimmie.
He kept quiet.
Tara was convinced he was dating Adrienne. His head was hurting a little, the heavy air of the café bothering him too much to start another argument with Tara.

A couple came in, and Jayden looked twice. The man had painted his face like a skeleton while the blonde woman with light blue eyes appeared dazed and too pale.

Druggies.
He eyed them, wondering why Tara was on this side of town anyway.

A flash of red from the corner of his eye caught his attention. Jayden twisted his head to look but saw nothing there.

“Here you go, Jayden. Sip some each night before bed,” Candace said, reappearing from the back rooms. She held out a small tin he assumed was filled with tea.

“Thanks,” he said. “How much I owe you?”

“Nothing. Just promise me you’ll drink it and keep your tags on.”

“Sure.” He accepted it.

“Come back whenever you’re in the neighborhood,” Candace said with a bright smile.

He lifted the tin in a silent salute.

Tara hugged Candace, talking quietly, while Jayden started towards the door.

The woman who had just entered was staring at him. The couple had moved to a table in the middle of the coffee shop. The man sat, but the woman didn’t.

Jayden offered a quick smile and stopped at the door, waiting for Tara. He studied the plain tin then popped off the top. The light scent of jasmine and something woodsy reminded him of the garden behind his father’s house. It was a pleasing, light smell, and he took a deep breath.

“This ends now.”

He looked up, surprised to see the woman standing just two feet from him. Her glazed eyes looked just over his shoulder, and he glanced back without seeing anyone behind him.

“You won’t take me.”

“I’m sorry, what –” he started.

The woman raised a knife. Jayden’s whole world slowed down. Someone across the room shouted. Instinctively, he raised his hands to block the knife. Fire tore through one hand, and blood splattered him. Shocked by the sensation, he didn’t have a chance to defend himself a second time, yet he threw his shoulder forward and tackled her, trying to knock the woman off her feet without hurting her.

The knife pierced his back once, twice, before they hit the ground.

Jayden smelled blood, felt the fire spreading throughout his body. He rolled off the woman, gasping for air. Why did he feel like he was drowning? There was no water around him.

“Jayden!” Tara’s scream was the last sound that registered, before the world grew too blurry for him to make out.

Jayden’s eyes closed, his grandmama’s warning about someone killing him drifting through the darkness in his mind..

A damsel in distress. A white girl with white hair and eye like jewels.

Adrienne?

Jayden’s world grew darker before it began to lighten. Shapes formed, and then he felt the warmth of the sun, heard the sound of a small creek. Grass tickled his feet.

“It is almost ready, Charles.”

Jayden blinked to clear his vision. The surroundings bloomed into light and color. He sat on the ground, leaning against the rough bark of a tree, in a grassy field that smelled of wildflowers. The trickling stream was a few feet away, its clear water reflecting the sunlight.

Where was he?

“I worry it will not work. Or that it will not be enough for Papa.”

He leaned around the tree to see who spoke.

A couple dozen feet away, under another tree, a brunette with porcelain skin took the hands of the dark-skinned man seated beside her. She rested them on her dress, which was pale blue. The man beside her wore all red, a robe of some sort.

“You are so quiet, Charles.”

“I am praying to our gods, my Brianne,” the man’s voice was soft.

Jayden climbed to his feet, flinching when his first step snapped a branch. He paused, afraid of drawing the attention of the strangers.

Jayden!

He cocked his head to the side, recognizing Tara’s voice without seeing her.

The man said something too quiet for him to hear.

The woman laughed, a light, contagious sound that drew his attention.

He felt like he was intruding but moved closer, intrigued by the strangers in his dream. Jayden stopped and leaned against a tree a few feet behind the couple.

The woman’s eyes were clear, green amethyst, resembling Adrienne’s, the girl Tara swore he was dating. He found himself mesmerized by their color. The woman was around Adrienne’s age. The similarities stopped there. This woman’s hair was dark and curly, held in check by a bonnet. If the length of her skirts were any indication, she was also tall.

Jayden tried to figure out where they were. While peaceful and pretty, it wasn’t anywhere he’d been in Louisiana, which made him wonder how he was dreaming about it in the first place.

“Marie comes.”

His focus returned to the couple. He saw a portly, African woman in a long dress and bonnet approaching from the direction opposite of the stream. She carried a small, wooden box inlaid with carvings Jayden couldn’t see from the distance.

“Today is the first day of our forever,” the young woman said, lovingly gazing at the man she called Charles.

“Go. Claim our future,” he urged, nudging her.

The green-eyed woman rose quickly. Jayden was pleased to see he was right about her height. She was about six feet tall and slender. He watched her hurry to the woman bearing the box.

His breath caught. He was startled to see the birthmark the between the portly woman’s eyes. It was the same that Grandmama Toussaint wore, the same his mother and every female member of her family was born with. He started forward, curious to meet the two women with familiar features.

“
Que bien aime, tard oublie
.” A hand rested on his arm. “Every time I am here, I think to myself, I would do it all again for her.”

Jayden looked up and froze.

The man in the red robe was a mirror image of him, with the exception of his eyes and his aquiline nose. Charles had green eyes but was the same age, build and size as Jayden.

“The Baron lets you watch, not interfere,” Charles warned him.

We’re losing him.

Jayden shook his head again, uncertain where this voice came from or whose it was.

“Where am I?” he asked.

“At the beginning,” Charles answered, smiling faintly. “The Baron Samedi likes to remind me that I am not wholly lost. Imagine a man out of his time and away from his own spirit not being lost.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I know. This will remind you.” Charles held out his clenched fist.

Jayden eyed it. Reluctantly, he held out his hand.

Charles dropped the familiar skeleton key into his palm.

“The beginning,” he repeated. “The day before I used this key for the first time.”

“You,” Jayden breathed, wanting to throw the dreaded key. “You’re my ancestor, who sold all those people into slavery. Is this a dream? Did I go back in time?”

“Neither. You are in-between life and death. My home, until I fulfill my … obligation.”

“Which is …”

“One more life.”

Jayden inched away. He heard another laugh and faced the creek. With the man in red beside him, he saw three figures passing around the box. The older woman bearing the mark of his family appeared grim, while the young girl with Adrienne’s eyes was beaming happily. Charles – now wearing plain black clothing – also appeared happy.

“What’re they doing?” he asked the robed man beside him.

“Charles – me in the past – and Brianne have just incurred a curse. Tonight, they will be happy, make love under the stars and swear to love another until the day they die, which will be in one year for Brianne, after the man her father marries her off to beats her to death,” the robed man explained. “Tomorrow, I return to Africa, never to see her again. I, however, will live for four hundred years, committing atrocities you cannot imagine.”

“You wanted gold, so you could marry her,” Jayden said, recalling the story his father told him of his family’s gruesome history. “You sold out your own people.”

“I swore to do whatever it took. The curse led me in the direction I had to go. I didn’t question it,” Charles said. “I never knew she was dead for five years after this day.”

The three figures vanished.

“No, wait!” Jayden exclaimed. “The woman, the older lady. I know her, don’t I?”

“There were three Houses involved in the curse. You represent two.”

“So … yes.” Jayden guessed. “My mother’s family helped my father’s family with this curse.”

“Yes.”

“Then you killed ninety-nine firstborns in my father’s family. The girl … is she Adrienne’s ancestor?”

“She is. As my penance, I had to kill ninety-nine firstborns in both Houses. You are the first born outside the curse in four hundred years. Adrienne should be as well,” Charles said. “One more, and I’m free.”

“You said she should be. What does that mean?”

“It means my final kill was taken from me. I’ve been patient. What’s five years when you’ve been alive for four hundred?” Charles shrugged. “I tracked her sister Therese through the Baron’s spirit world. Sometimes, when she emerges into the human world, I kill whatever form she takes as a reminder that I have not forgotten. I can’t quite get to her, but I’m done playing games. Obviously the spirits and gods have other plans, or sweet Adrienne would be mine already.”

The tale chilled Jayden as much as the key in his hand. It didn’t seem possible that the boy his age had killed two hundred people.

“And then you’re free,” he whispered.

“And then I’m free,” Charles agreed. “I can finish out my life in peace and die with dignity.”

Jayden didn’t ask about the lives Charles claimed. There was no dignity in being struck down by a four hundred year old boogeyman from a curse.

Hang on, Jayden. You can do it.

Another voice, this one familiar, though he wasn’t able to place it.

“It’s not right. The people you killed weren’t even involved in this,” Jayden said, motioning to the spot where the three had stood.

“We knew the risks,” Charles replied.

“You knew so many would die?”

“We knew the curse would return upon us three times whatever harm we caused,” Charles said. “We both swore to bear the penance. The more gold I got, the more I wanted, and the more I did wrong to get it. I was stricken by gold lust. I forgot why I wanted it and destroyed as many lives as it took to get more. I feel fortunate the price was only ninety-nine from each House. Considering the evil I did, I could’ve wiped out both families many times over.”

Jayden felt sick. He couldn’t let himself imagine how many lives his ancestor had sold into slavery or outright destroyed.

“Not Adrienne.” He didn’t know why entirely, but he knew she had to live.

“Tell her sister. Therese is the one who set her up,” Charles said. “She couldn’t break the spell and so she shifted it to another, in hopes of one day living again. I’ve been debating what to do: take the easy target, Adrienne, or continue chasing her sister.”

“Her own sister did this?”

“She did. Tragic lovers.” Charles’ eyes went to the spot where the three had been. “Repeating history. Incurring the wrath of a curse whose power they cannot begin to understand. If Therese succeeds in returning, she will destroy many lives. ”

“White zombie.” Jayden wasn’t certain where the odd words came from.

“Yes.”

“What am I doing here?” he demanded.

“You tell me. You showed up in my memory.” Charles smiled. “They’ve been trying to bring you back since you arrived. Why
are
you here, Jayden?”

Because it’s important I understand what happened. I just don’t know why.

The same way Adrienne had captured his attention with one look, this odd place and its tragic story did as well. His family was free of the curse, and he didn’t even know who Adrienne was, aside from a picture and what his sister told him.

The idea of her dying at the hands of someone who looked like him, though, did not sit well. She shouldn’t die because of something her ancestors did. But what business was it of his to interfere? To warn her? To call the police?

Could the police even protect her against someone who wasn’t supposed to be alive?

“Is there a way to make things right without anyone else dying?” Jayden asked.

“If there is, I never found it. The curse must be fulfilled. It’s the only way to end it. After Brianne married that man, she had twins, born minutes a part. The firstborn was a girl, the second a boy. I spent my first fifty years fighting the curse. I prayed for weeks at a time, tried to kill myself, converted to every religion in existence at the time,” Charles said, pensive. “Nothing worked. Nothing lifted the curse from my shoulders. All the while, I built an empire of gold by selling our people.

“One night, I gave up. I went to bed with two bottles of whiskey and a gun, praying I’d just die. You know what happened?”

Jayden shook his head.

“When I awoke three days later, I found the bodies of every firstborn from both families, stacked like firewood in my yard.” Charles smiled, a strange light in his eyes.

Jayden backed away, not liking what he heard.

“My own son and grandson. Brianne’s daughter and her granddaughter. A few firstborn nephews, nieces and cousins. Twelve bodies total, every firstborn from both families for fifty years. I realized then that I couldn’t fight a power that forced me to take the life of my own son. So, I stopped trying. I accepted my penance and my obligation and I did what I was suppose to do.”

“There has to be another way,” Jayden said, horrified. “My god or your gods … they would never condemn someone to suffer in this way.”

“Well, I never figured it out. One more, and I’m done,” Charles said. “At this point, you have a bigger concern. Adrienne’s sister is getting ready to bring a new kind of evil upon you all, stemming from her attempts to prevent the curse from being fulfilled.”

“Charles, there must be a way to stop this, before –”

Suddenly, he felt as if he was yanked out of his body and thrown into a wall. Light exploded around him, blinding him. Blurred activity was loud around him, and he struggled to understand what was going on. He tried to breathe then choked, but couldn’t cough. He was drowning.

“We got him!” someone called. “Easy, Jayden.”

Hands pressed him back, and his strength gave out. He lay still, freaked out by the inability to see straight or control what was happening to his body. The scent of flowers was replaced by that of antiseptic and blood.

Gradually, he began to realize where he was. While he wasn’t able to focus, he recalled being stabbed by a blonde woman. The strange dream faded without leaving completely. He thought he saw a familiar flash of red – Charles’ robe – but couldn’t turn his head to see if his ancestor was there.

After what felt like forever, the activity around him slowed. Jayden found himself able to focus better. The more he concentrated on fully entering reality, the less he recalled of his dream, until it was too disjointed to remember.

The steady beeps of hospital machines grew sharp and clear. The bed he was on wasn’t soft, but it was firm, and the chill of an air conditioner touched his skin.

“How we doing?” a friendly doctor with large brown eyes asked, leaning over.

Jayden grunted. He felt like his body weighed two tons. He lifted an arm, but it took effort and made him sweat.

“Good. You had a close call, but you’re doing good. Any pain?”

“No,” Jayden answered. “Hospital.”

“Yes, sir. You’re at a hospital. I want you to get some rest before we allow visitors,” the doctor continued. “I’m going to increase your meds just a little, so you sleep tonight. In the morning, you can talk to your parents. Sound like a plan?”