How Good is Your Voodoo? Pt 25

Amalia’s eyes were red and her dark, curly hair seemed to be flowing on its own, for there was no wind.

“What.  Have you done.  To my sons.”  Her voice was low and curt.

“W-We’re…helping them…”  Kun struggled to speak and get precious air.

“LIAR!  WHY DO I HEAR THEIR SCREAMS!?”  As her voice raised, her grip tightened.  Kun’s neck felt so stiff, he dared not move it.

“Amalia-sama, yamete!”  yelled Mei.

“And YOU!”  How dare yo—w-what??”  

Amalia’s voice faltered and her facial features and grip softened as she looked past Mei.

What she saw behind her where her two sons.

The black mist above Bongani turned and twisted around the red mist until it vanished leaving the human-looking red mist behind.  It stood upright and looked towards Mei and Amalia, nodded, and sunk towards Bongani, slowly shifting towards a cooler blue.

Bongani’s eyes shot open, and a ghostly gasp escaped his lips.  He looked around frantically at first, then at his brother, whom he quickly embraced.

“He was…surrounded by darkness and sadness…and the anger and pain of his soul manifested…He’s…he’s whole now.”  Mei’s eyes were pleading, but her voice was as calm as she could make it.

“A…diza?  Bon…gani?”  Amalia had completely let go of Kun, whom had begun to hack and wheeze, trying to open his throat and get some air again.

As his breathing began to return to normal, Kun watched in a sort of awe as Amalia walked towards her sons.  Her hair, her dress…everything about her seemed to flow in the windless night.  Adiza had helped Bongani to his feet; his tired eyes towards the ground, the ghost looked up as he and Adiza walked over towards their mother.

Amalia suddenly felt weak.  She fell to her knees just a few feet away from them, her eyes wide in shock.  Her sons made up the rest of the way.

Bongani lifted his head as best as he could to see his mother’s face before he and his brother fell to their knees and wrapped their arms around her.

She gasped, slowly wrapped her arms around her sons and pulled them close.  She sobbed, quietly, yet deeply.  She was rocking with them.

By this time, Kun was up and just coming up to Mei’s side.  He watched the family hug each other lovingly.  “He only had himself for company…didn’t he?”  Kun asked Mei, whom looked up and nodded, then returned her gaze back towards Amalia and her sons.  She jumped slightly when she felt Kun’s hand on her shoulder.

“Excellent work, Mei.”  Kun said warmly, with a smile to match.

She blushed slightly, then looked up towards him and returned the smile.  “Mm!  Arigato!”  She happily said.

With the calm of and peacefulness of Amalia, Bongani and Adiza’s embrace, Kun noticed that there weren’t that many other sounds either.  He looked back towards the zombies and ghosts; they had completely stopped, their eyes focused on Amalia and her sons.

Shaking off the eerie feeling eh got, he and Mei walked towards the three ghosts.  Through tearful eyes, Amalia looked up at them.

“Thank you both…and, I’m sorry.”  Amalia said shakily.

Kun smiled, and shook his head, with Mei doing the same.

“You’re…very welcome.”  Mei said softly.

“One hundred and forty-five years…”  She said listlessly, with a hint of happiness, as if a great weight was finally off her shoulders.  “After so long…how did you find them?”

“You pointed us in the right direction.”  Kun reached into a conjured snowball and pulled out her diary.  Kneeling down, he placed his thumb on the veve.

“Papa Legba’s…” Amalia’s voice trailed off.

“Yes.  It was what we saw several times in the house…on several rooms, as well as doors and locks.  We found these in the places where you sons were…this is how we found them...”

Kun’s voice started to trail when he noticed Amalia’s confused expression.

“That’s…impossible…” She whispered, almost glaring at Kun.

“Eh?”  Mei chirped.

“The exact same veve?”  Amalia added, almost growling.

Puzzled, Kun and Mei looked at each other before he took a look at the buckle.  He peered at the intricate design of the veve: in the four quadrants of the main cross lay four smaller encircled crosses.  Leaf-like designs lay on the top and the bottom of the cross and it was dotted at each end by stars.

The only familiar thing they saw were the encircled crosses.

The veve looked nothing like what they saw.

“…Shit.”  Kun muttered under his breath.

“Nani?”  Mei asked, whom was became more puzzled by the second.

Papa Legba’s unlocking of the diary had left such a strong impression on him that he forgot how the veve itself looked.  Something sank deep into his stomach; they were back to square one.
“Whose have you been seeing?”  Amalia asked inquisitively, her eyes narrowed.  Her sons were exchanging worrying looks.

Nodding (and gulping), Kun drew the encircled cross into the ground, like how he and Mei had been seeing them.  Upon finishing it, however, he felt something guide his hand towards the upper left quardrant.

“You’ve been missing something.  This is what I’ve seen with your eyes.”  Whispered Marinette inside of his head.  Guiding his finger, she helped him make a large X in the center of the cross.  Each end of the X was hooked in a different direction.  When Marinette’s presence disappeared, Kun’s eyes grew wide.  Images of the veve flashed through his mind as he saw them.  The innocuous marks that he saw with each one seemed to fall into place.

Amidst all of this, some of the distant standing zombies and ghosts started moving.

“No…that’s…”  Amalia looked horrified…

“Whose is it?”

Mei, whose mind was racing while Kun was drawing the Veve, screamed, “AH! Lupon-san, the diary!!”

Before Kun could speak, Mei snatched it out of his hands, and quickly flipped through the pages.  “Amalia-Sama, Papa Legba…what kind of loa is he?”  She spoke almost to the point of stammering.

“He’s…one of the loa of the crossroads.  He lets other loa come in to this plane.”  Amalia replied, bewildered.

“One of the loa?  Then, there’s another, right?”

“Yes, but…it can’t be him.”  Amalia shook her head in denial.  “He helped with Kriminel…”

Now it clicked with Kun. “Him?!”

“Hai…he was the reason behind the Barons showing up, including Kriminel-sama and Samedi-Sama!”  She showed Kun the page which mentions the Barons…and a name.

He whose power comes from darkness.  Jacob’s words echoed in Kun’s head as his chest lurched painfully.

“…Kalfu.”

Eyes a fierce blue, he leaned back and twisted his body enough to just barely dodge a punch from a suited man.  Grabbing the unguarded arm, he threw his ambusher towards the boxes, in which the man landed on his hands before using his momentum to launch himself forward, landing just past the hot boxes.

He got to his feet, dusted himself off, and turned towards Kun, Amalia, Adiza, Bongani, and Mei.

“Very clever…the both of you.”  Kalfu’s smiled a smile that unsettled both Kun and Mei.