Possessed (8 page)

“
Yeah, I wanted to see the
cemetery and then I accidently fell and slipped into this weird
hole,” said Sabrina.

“
Why in heavens would you
run off to the cemetery at this hour?” Grand-mere looked at
Sabrina. Her expression was severe and disapproving.

“
I drank a Hurricane and got
lost.” She shrugged.

I eyed her carefully. Her lips weren’t
trembling or anything, which meant that she was telling the truth.
She actually didn’t remember anything that had happened.

“
Everything’s okay now,”
said Lucus. “No harm done.”

Aunt Mae examined us warily before
speaking. “Arelia, Sabrina, upstairs right now, the both of you,”
she turned her attention to Sabrina. “Both of you go on and take a
spiritual bath. Now. And you too,” she said, as she focused her
furious green-eyes on Ivan. Her voice was harsh and
terrifying.

“
But-” I wanted to tell her
about Papa Ghede’s ominous warning. Maybe she could help me figure
out what he had meant.

“
Now,” she
repeated.

“
Okay.” I guess I would have
to wait. I had no intention of messing with her. She was damn scary
when she was angry. Besides, by now, I knew that she knew what she
was talking about. Something had happened out in that cemetery, and
if I had any hope of reversing it or fending off the attack, the
best way to do so was by taking a spiritual bath.

“
I have no idea what a
spiritual bath is,” said Ivan innocently, as he gave me wide grin.
“Not really versed in the whole voodoo/hoodoo lingo.”

Liar!

“
Arelia, help the poor boy
out,” said Aunt Mae.

Poor boy! Yeah right!

“
Whatever,” I muttered, as I
lowered my head and grabbed Sabrina by the hand and dragged her
inside the house and into Aunt Mae’s office. I needed to gather
supplies for the bath, and fast.

“
What the hell, Arelia!” she
whined, as she tried to shake loose. “This place is creepy,” she
said, as she glanced around the office.

“
Sabrina, I don’t care if
you’re pissed at me. For once in your life you have to just listen
and stop whining.”

“
What is going on?” she
asked, still pouting. “I’m not talking to you, by the way,” she
said, as I shut the office door behind me.

“
Fine, don’t talk to me,
whatever, but listen to me. Something lured you to the cemetery and
whatever it was probably was beyond creepy, and I think that it’s
attached itself to you.”

She didn’t say anything. Her lips were
pursed in a tight, hard line as she looked at me with utter fury.
“You sound insane. I was angry, drank too much rum and accidently
got lost. I was on my way back to the party and ended up in the
cemetery. Nothing lured me there.”

I took a deep breath and tried to
ignore the dull headache that had returned. “How can you explain
being buried alive?”

So much drama, queen. All of this
teenage angst can be eased if you get out of here. Is it really
worth sticking around and defending a murderer? What gives you the
right to help him? Don’t any of the poor souls he’s murdered over
the years deserve their vengeance? What makes him better than any
of them?

Ivan’s voice was back and more annoying
than ever.

“
I wasn’t buried alive! I
fell into a stupid hole and some mud fell on top of me. Besides,
you’re only making all of this up to avoid talking about you
hooking up with Lucus! You made me look like such an idiot. You let
me walk into his room with lingerie on and then didn’t say anything
when I was going to do it again!” She screamed and her skin started
to get blotchy. “You quietly watched as I went after him hard like
some desperate freak and even encouraged me!”

She had a point, I did feel beyond
guilty, but I never meant for her to find out the way she had. “I’m
sorry,” I muttered. “I’m sorry, but I never meant for any of it to
happen. We all do things we’re not exactly proud of and the only
thing I can say is I’m sorry. Besides, it’s not like I threw myself
at him or anything. It was only a kiss. But I do…”

“
I knew it”! She screamed.
“You fell for him, even after you knew he was off
limits!”

I turned my attention to the long
shelves lined with sweet smelling herbs and fiery oils. Through
clenched teeth, I muttered, “He’s not property. A person can’t be
off limits. He can do whatever he wants with whoever he wants.”
Honestly, I was tired of her acting like Lucus was a piece of meat.
He wasn’t.

The room went disturbingly mute and I
heard Sabrina take a deep breath.

Clutching the ingredients in my hand, I
turned around to face her.

Her lower lip started to quiver. She
was silent for a few seconds. When she spoke, her voice was low and
composed, which, combined with her mud stained dress and face, was
a little disturbing. “I know what you all think about me. You think
that I’m a vapid, spoiled joke. You all do, including Lucus. This
whole time he was nice to me but he was drooling over you. I feel
like such a moron. That’s what you wanted, right? For me to look
like a moron so you could look all superior. Argh! ”

Sabrina tugged on her hair and threw me
venomous stares. As she did, I noticed that the mud she was covered
in started to turn a pale pink that matched the color of her dress
perfectly. Slowly but surely, the pink started to turn darker and
darker until it was a sickening shade of red. I tried my best to
ignore it but soon it started to drip off of Sabrina and trickled
to my toes. I looked away and focused my attention to a jar of
Devil’s Shoestring that sat on a shelf.

“
That’s not true, Sabrina,
you know I don’t think you’re joke, and neither does Lucus. He was
being polite. He didn’t want to make you uncomfortable or
anything,” I said while still keeping my eyes firmly fixed on the
jar.

“
No. No. No! He wasn’t! He
was protecting you until you got the guts to say something! This
whole time you guys have been going behind my back and doing who
knows what. That’s not fair; I came here to meet him. I invited you
to come with me. How could you steal him from me? Why the hell does
everyone always flock to you? Tony, Lucus and even Ivan!” she
fumed.

“
Steal him from you, really?
He was never yours to begin with. And Ivan? You can’t honestly
think there’s anything going on between us? He’s a major ass.” Kind
of. I still think there’s hope for him, but whatever.

“
Then why the hell can’t you
even look at me! I slept with him, but he still insists on hanging
around you! What’s up with that? Not that I care about him, but
still. I don’t even know you anymore! I tell you everything, and
all you do is keep secrets from me. You didn’t even tell me about
Tony.”

Slowly, I took my eyes off of the wall.
I know I was supposed to be hurt over Sabrina’s words, but at that
second all I could think of was that Saturday Night Live skit
What’s Up With That? The words kept repeating themselves over and
over again.

What’s up with that? What’s up with
that? What’s up with that? Oh my, this is getting even better than
I expected. You two pathetic little girls are probably going to end
up in a twisted murder/suicide over Prince Charming. Not the plan I
had in mind, but hey, you insist on staying here. Is it really
worth it?

“
It’s not what you think.
Nothing is what you think!” I had to tell her the truth about
Lucus.

“
Oh really? Then how is
it?”

Wanting to come clean and get the whole
Lucus thing off of my chest, I blurted out the words as fast as I
could before they refused to come out. “Lucus is under a voodoo
curse, he’s really 176 years old and the only reason he paid any
attention to me when we got here is because I can help him get out
of this house.”

Right after I said the words, I
realized how ridiculous I must have sounded to her. I was only
getting used to the whole idea myself, even after all the crazy
things I’d seen. How did I expect her to fully believe what I was
saying when a small part of me was still a little unsure of the
whole thing.

Sabrina was quiet and looked at me with
her bright blue eyes. A solid two minutes passed before she said
anything. “Right, and Ivan is a vampire and Tony is a werewolf? Or
wait, is Tony a shape-shifter and Ivan’s a fairy?”

Argh, Ivan. If only I could tell you
about Ivan! “Look, I don’t expect you to believe me, but how else
can you explain what happened tonight?”

She threw her hands up in the air in
total exasperation. “Blame it on the booze, this is ridiculous. I
expected more from you, Arelia. After all we’ve been through
together, a little honesty would be nice.”

“
I am being honest! There
are things that we can’t explain by logic. Things that are meant to
be a mystery and this whole thing is one of them.”

“
Bullshit! I said I would
try to understand the whole voodoo thing and God knows I’m trying
but lying to my face and telling me that Lucus is under some curse
is an insult to my intelligence. And despite what all of you think
about me, I do have a brain!”

“
I never said that you
didn’t have a brain! No one thinks that but you,
obviously.”

“
This blows, I’m out of
here.” Sabrina opened the door and ran down the hallway and up the
staircase.

“
Erzulie, give me patience,”
I muttered, as I ran after her.

Chapter Ten

Go Away!

Juggling what felt like a million
ingredients, I ran right after her. A month ago I would have
scowled and let her go, but slowly I was coming to understand that
being a voodoo queen meant that I was essentially responsible for
healing people. And as difficult as Sabrina was being, I knew that
she was hurting. I knew how awful people could be when they were
angry. I was one of those awful angry people, but I was trying to
change that. Being angry all of the time was exhausting.

“
Sabrina, wait!” I cried, as
I ran after her up the stairs.

“
Leave me alone!” she
shouted without turning back.

“
I’m not lying to you. Hear
me out,” I said, as I stalked her down the hallway.

“
No!” She opened our bedroom
door and slammed it before I had a chance to step inside. “No! I
can’t! I feel like an idiot!”

I could hear her muffled cries coming
from inside. They started out slowly but increased into wild waves
of hysteria that were kind of terrifying. I felt awful because I
could have told her the truth but I was too afraid. That basically
made me a coward and a liar. I didn’t want to be any of those
things.

“
Sabrina, please.” I knocked
gently on the door. “Hear me out.”

“
No, Arelia. No. If I can’t
trust you, who can I trust? I have no one but you. You know that. I
never thought that the one person I trusted most would ever lie to
me. I guess I’m not good enough for the truth. No one cares about
me, not even you, apparently.”

Her words were barely audible between
her wails and moans. The last time I had heard her cry this hard
was when we had found out that her sister had died. Her tone became
increasingly hysterical as she continued. “I feel so alone. You
don’t care about me. Lucus thinks I’m a joke, and even low-life
Ivan’s been avoiding me like the plague. For once I want somebody
to love me. Why doesn’t anybody? What’s wrong with me? I thought
that Lucus did, but obviously I’m beyond deluded. Now, I don’t know
what I’m doing here other than the fact I have absolutely nowhere
else to go!”

“
You know you’ll always have
me. Please open the door,” I said, as I placed my hand on doorknob.
To my horror, slowly but surely, the intricately carved antique
handle started to change from a rusty brown color into a vivid
shade of red. I pulled my hand away in repulsion only to see that
it had already been stained. Beads of blood started to stream down
from the top of the door and onto my muddy feet. Soon, the clean
ivory walls started to glisten with fresh blood and I wanted
nothing more than to make it all go away.

Rooms built on the blood of others. How
much blood was shed? How many lives were lost, and why should he
get away with it?

“
No. Go away. I can’t even
look at you right now. I feel so pathetic.”

“
You’re not pathetic. No one
thinks that about you.”

“
You do. If you had one
ounce of respect for me you wouldn’t have let me make an utter fool
of myself,” she fired back.

“
Please let me help you,” I
said quietly.

“
No.”

I took a deep breath. “Do you remember
when we were four and we were playing in the park next to your
home?”

She didn’t answer. I continued to speak
anyways. “And Dennis Cliffman said something super rude to me? Do
you remember that?”

“
So what! What does that
have to do with anything?”

“
I remember how you took the
chocolate ice cream cone out of his hand and smashed it against his
forehead and then pulled his hair. To this day I still remember the
shocked look on his face. You did exactly what I wanted to do but
was too chicken to. When I saw you trying to get with Lucus, maybe
a small part of me was jealous- okay, a huge part of me- but I knew
that I would never have the guts to actually, well, go for him, so
I let you. But then things kind of happened…”