𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟑𝟏 ; 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐚𝐲
Jalen, Destiny, and Ja could barely understand Marsai, as she spoke frantically giving them the run down on what had occurred on her mission to find Mariah. "I checked her location and it said she was at our room right, so that's where I went. But when I got there I could smell the candles had been burned, and when I walked in the bathroom there was still some smoke coming from them. I had to just have missed her. But I don't know where she could have went. Her location is off now." Her mind ran wild thinking of the endless possibilities of what Mariah could have done, and where she could be.
"Fuck, so she asked for another offer?" Jalen asked the question that they all thought in their minds. No matter how much they all wanted to hope and pray it wasn't true. All the signs pointed to it. "I think so." She mumbled in response, fiddling with the gold jewelry on her fingers. "What are we going to do?" She sighed hopelessly.
"Honestly, we prolly should go back to the spot we got the book and amulet from. We can't do this shit by ourselves anymore we need somebody who know what they doing." Ja looked worriedly at them all, his arms were bracing the side of his head like that one Regina Hall meme.
"Okay, lets go right now." Marsai nodded, pulling out her phone to order the uber.
"But wait where'd Melo go?" Destiny chewed on the inside of her cheek. "Wouldn't it make sense to have Melo too? What if something happens to him?"
"Fuck that nigga, we just gone have to do this shit without him." Jalen mumbled grabbing his sweatshirt from the side of the couch and heading towards the door. How could she think about that nigga at a time like this, he didn't seem to give a fuck about her why would she give a fuck about him?
𝟕
The sky was dark, and awfully gloomy. Rain fell from the heavens and splattered to the ground routinely and seemed to pour harder and harder every minute that went by.
"I could've sworn this where it was. Where the fuck did it go?" Ja threw his hands in the air in a frustrated manner. The uber let them out on bourbon street, but the shop looked to be no where in sight. Almost as if it never existed in the first place.
"It definitely was right here. We aren't making this up are we?" Marsai looked at the group confused. How could a whole ass building just disappear like that, there is no fucking way.
"What you juvies looking for?" A random man who stood under a balcony, leaned against a pillar, asked the teens. A cigar burning in between his fingers, and smoke escaped his lips as he blew out his cancer air.
"There was a store right here right? It was like a spiritual shop or something?" Destiny questioned.
A gust of wind blew by blowing out his cigar. His eyes narrowed at them, and his demeanor was now defensive like he was suspicious of something. "You talking bout house of hoodoo?"
The teens nodded their head at the wierd man.
"That shit been gone, one day Laveau lost her touch." The man shrugged his shoulders relighting his cigar with a lighter he pulled out of his pockets. "How you know bout that spot?" He mumbled.
"Bruh we do not have time to be conversating right now. You know where we can find her?" Jalen asked, growing irritated with how long winded with conversation the man seemed to be.
"Madam Laveau?"
"Duh nigga." Jalen rolled his eyes fully irritated. "Yeah, you know where she at?" Ja asked again.
"A house about two blocks down. All white with eagle statues. You should be able to find her over there." He pointed in the directions the teens should head in.
"Finally, fuck." Jalen mumbled under his breath, causing Destiny to elbow him in his side slightly laughing at his frustration. Following behind her friends, she turned back to yell a thank you, but the man was gone.
𝟕
The four teens bang on the door until they were met with the man who sold them the amulet 3 months prior. "Can I help you?" He looked slightly concerned and confused, but who could blame him. Why would three random teenagers be on his porch outside in the middle of a literal hurricane.
"We need Madam Laveau's help. It's about the amulet and book you sold us." As she held the book up his eyes widened. "Whose at the door, chile?" An older woman's voice sounded from inside the house.
"Come in, come in." The man waved the four teens inside the victorian style home. "Aunty Laveau, they have the book!"
"How did you get that book, It was stolen from me months ago?" Her eyebrows furrowed, and her face contoured into a stern look making the teenagers a bit uncomfy, as she walked closer to them. "Our friend said she bought it."
"Was it that lightskinned Geechee girl?"
"I don't know what a Geechee is but yeah she's light skin and a girl. But LOOK, Madam Laveau we all accepted the offers that the zonbi gave to us, and we think she asked for another one. But she's gone and the amulet is gone and we don't know what to do and we're really scared and-." Marsai spoke frantically again, before being cut off by Ja putting his hand over her mouth to shut her up.
"We really need your help, we fucked up bad." Ja interjected before giving her a rundown of the story.
"The girl got greedy, and it sounds like she put a root on that boy too." Laveau grimaced, leading them further into her home into an office that was set up similarly to how the shop was. She pulled a couple of books off of the bookshelf setting them down onto the table. The teens watched intently as she flipped through the pages quickly, occasionally asking them questions about their story again.
"Which one of you are Geechee?" The teens looked around at each other. "Where are y'all from?" She rolled her eyes before laughing lightly at the teens ignorance.
"Cali." "South Carolina." "Texas." "Georgia."
"It's you child." She pointed at Destiny. "You're the Geechee. That other girl was a Geechee too."
"What does that mean?" Destiny questioned.
The priestess shook her head, whilst flipping through the large book again. "Geechie's are direct descendants of African slaves who lived along the coast of the south, specifically Georgia. They have rich values and traditions, like us here in New Orleans, but they practice their own form of spiritual traditions."
"That makes sense, you from Savannah." Ja mentioned. "Yeah, okay but what does me being '𝐠𝐞𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐞' have to do with anything?"
"You are the only one who has the capability to combat her ritual, because you are of the same bloodline. The girl is slow. If she knew what she was doing, she would have known that Haitian hoodoo is a closed practice." She looked up, from the book. "Not just anyone can participate in our spiritual traditions with out any consequences."
"Okay then how am *I* supposed to combat it if it's your traditions? This isn't making any since Madam." Destiny fingers found their way to her temples.
"Even tho she's practicing Haitian Creole since she's geechee, a geechee has to combat it. Chile I don't make the rules, I just follow them."
"Shit, I don't feel too good." Ja swayed trying to hold himself up before collapsing back onto Jalen, who barely caught him. "Ja stop fucking playing." Jalen grumbled holding the boy up, but his grimacing face quickly fell to a scared one once he realized Ja wasn't moving.
"Jamel....JAMEL!" Marsai yelled falling to her knees trying to shake him up.
"This is not good, at all. Beaux you and curly head go rest him on the couch." Laveau got up from her seat.
"Why what's wrong with him?" Marsai asks, watching the two men carry him away into the living room.
"The curse is beginning. All of your windows are closing. Leave him with me and I will do my best to take care of him, but I can only do so much until the curse has been broken."
"Okay, um um um." Destiny waved her hands frantically, fanning herself. " So what do we have to do?" Destiny asks.
"Tonight is the strongest night for all rituals. If she was given more than one offer as you say, she has to set the zonbi free, so her wishes will be fulfilled. But once she does it, the zonbi will take over her flesh and body and she will be enslaved in its mind. But she can't do it alone she'd need help."
Destiny gasps, looking up at Jalen. "Melo."
"That's the boy she got the root on?"
The teens nod their heads.
"You'll have to find where they are doing the ritual tonight. If the Zonbi takes control of either of their bodies, you must 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥 them."