Part 1: Find the Coven.
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Marie's reflection showed in the water outside of Celeste's two-story boat house. Celeste was already on deck fishing for her dinner. Marie's mouth moved but no sound escaped her lips, only bubbles. She strained to hear. "I can't understand what you're saying Mama. You're under water."
Marie shook her head disapprovingly. Hearing wasn't necessary for Celeste to know that Marie had sucked her teeth. She had always believed that she was a disappointment to her mother. Marie never bothered to tell her otherwise. She motioned for Celeste to come closer and she did so cautiously.
"Oh God, what does she want with me this time? She only comes to see me for MoneyGrams." Celeste was responsible for paying off Marie's gambling debts, buying her concert tickets for every rap concert that came to town, and keeping her decked out in Alexander McQueen. Marie had Hermés taste with a Michael Kors budget. It seemed as if she cared about money more than her own daughter. Nevertheless, Celeste would continue to send packages to Marie's door and money to her account until her dying day, a day that was never supposed to come.
"What? I know you want something Mama. You have a lot of nerve to keep asking me for so much money after all those times you told me to stay away from you. I'm tired of it. I've been tired of it for the last 170 years." Celeste flipped her long chocolate curls over her right shoulder and crossed her arms.
Marie's eyes glowed red. This was never a good sign. Most likely Celeste was about to have her voodoo doll stabbed in the ass. "COME HERE!" Marie yelled so loudly that the sound penetrated the air and the boat shook. Marie motion her for to get in the swamp water with her.
Celeste figured it was best to follow Marie's instructions before she decided to sink her bank blowing home. She had saved for years to buy it. Marie had been jealous that Celeste could afford such a nice place. After all, Marie was the legend, the most infamous voodoo practitioner in the world, loved and feared by all.
"Psssh." Celeste thought to herself. "All the power in the world and she still can't turn a dime into a dollar. Been here for over two centuries, jealous of her own child and with the same pissy mood as a teenager. Hmph. Trying to fuck up my boat." Celeste knew Marie was in her head but didn't care, hell, she wanted her mother to know how outraged she was with her bad attitude and crazy antics. She knew the pin would hit her ass soon.
Pissed, Marie's eyes continued to glow. Her mouth made more and more bubbles as she attempted to go off. Celeste couldn't hear her now that she wasn't yelling. She kicked off her Gucci thigh highs and took off her Rolex. It slipped out of her hand and landed in the water. "SHIT!" She slid into the swamp. Marie snatched her foot and pulled her under the murky water.
"Oh, God! She's finally going to kill me!" Marie was the only person on earth who could. Her immortality carried on to Celeste as soon as she exited the womb. She was the first baby Marie promised to Legba, but before it became time for him to take her to hell Marie traded Celeste with another newborn and convinced him that it was her own. To keep Celeste hidden she was sent away the night she was born. Marie had given her to a white woman who lived in the very same swamp that she was about to drown in.
"I'm not killin' you fool!" Marie let go of her foot, but Celeste didn't float to the top. It was no longer brown and murky. It was so clear that she could see her mother perfectly. She saw her shimmering tignon, gold hoop earrings, and red stained lips. "If I wanted to then I would have done it already."
"I can hear you now." Celeste realized that she was able to breathe. Her neck tickled, and she brought the tips of her fingers to it. It was both slimy and ridged. She had gills.
"That's the point of you gettin' in the water." Marie studied her carefully. "Well, you still lookin' like a teenager. Remind me of how old you are."
"I'm 185 years old Mama. I'm your only child. How can you not know?" Marie had asked Celeste this question her entire life. She didn't understand how Marie could call herself a mother. For the first 15 years of her life Marie shooed Celeste away whenever she would try to visit her in town. Marie claimed it was to protect her. If it got around to Papa Legba that her daughter was still alive he'd send them to hell without a second thought. At the time it broke Celeste's heart and she vowed that she would never look for Marie again. Soon after Celeste made that final decision Marie started appearing in her dreams every so often to communicate. She had never made an appearance in the swamp water before.
"It gets hard to remember after 80. Don't take it personal Lily Pad." Lily Pad was the nickname Marie had given her. It was more to tease her for living in a swamp than to show any affection towards her. Honestly, Celeste had never seen her show any affection to anyone other than Dolores, the woman who lost her son to the Klan in 1961.
"Lily Pad? Mama stop picking. You were the one that sent me out here. You didn't give a damn about me." The water masked her tears
"Hush. If I didn't give a damn about you then you wouldn't be alive now. You'd be a little baby flyin' around in heaven like the rest of 'em. Even I'm not heartless enough to send away my own kin." Marie checked her nails. She felt horrible about what she allowed to happen to those children, but she'd never let anyone know. The colder she seemed, the more respect she gained from those both living and dead. There was nothing she could do about it now anyway.
"But pretty damn near." Celeste thought. "Handing over souls of the innocent seems like the greatest sin."
Marie sucked her teeth and put her hands on her hips. "And nobody told you that you had to live in this swamp forever. You could have lived anywhere you wanted outside of New Orleans but instead you cruise around in this fancy boat getting' algae all over it like you don't have no home training."
"Well, I'm content here. I work, I can order whatever I want from Amazon and meditate without being interrupted. This is my home. I belong here."
"My God, I give you the gift of immortality, but you don't even bother tryin' to live a decent life." Marie groaned. "You don't have no friends, ain't been nowhere past the local redneck supermarket to wear all of your flashy clothes and jewels, and don't have many notches on your headboard I'm assumin'. Live your best life now that I'm gone. Papa Legba has no business lurkin' around anymore."
"Gone where?" Celeste raised an eyebrow. Was she going to another shop? Another city? She secretly hoped that Marie was planning to live on the boat with her, but she knew better.
"I'm in hell." Mare said solemnly.
Celeste stretched her eyes. "You're dead? HOW?" This was probably just another one of Marie's games she liked to play on her. She always got a kick out of how gullible Celeste could be.
"Remember that horror in a box I told you about years and years ago? Delphine LaLaurie."
"Barely." She waited to hear her mother's explanation.
"A coven of white witches dug her out of the coffin I banished her to and let the racist bitch live with 'em for weeks!" She made wild hand gestures for dramatic effect. Drama. That word summed up Marie to a T.
With that little reminder every memory came flooding back to her. Delphine LaLaurie was a socialite in New Orleans during the 1830s. She had become known for torturing slaves. After she turned Bastien into a minotaur, Marie killed her family, gave her everlasting life, and put her in the ground to listen as life resumed without her. "Why would they do that? Didn't they know all of the horrible things she'd done?"
"The hell if I know. Those bitches probably just wanted to use her against me. They broke the truce when they came on my territory lookin' to start a war. Long story short, I joined the white witches to end that witch huntin' company, Delphi Trust and-"
"They aren't witch hunters. They're a financial company."
"Look at you, buyin' in to all that mess. You believe everythin' the internet tells you." She rolled her eyes so hard that Celeste thought they were going to get lost in her head. "As I was sayin' before you so rudely cut me off, Delphine had some fool knock me out with one of his old stanky dolls. A grown man with dolls, can you believe that? A damn cabbage patch kid brought an end to the Great Marie Laveau! When I came to, Delphine was choppin' me apart. I wasn't nothing but a wing, two breasts and a thigh. By the end, I was just a shit talkin' head. She scrambled my body parts all over town."
Celeste thought for a while, "But how did that kill you?"
"It was Queenie's big ole ass. She used to be one of us but she talked Papa Legba into sendin' me to hell before my time. She told him that I wouldn't be able to carry out my end of the deal next year because I was all over the place." Marie put her hands on her round hips. "To think that I took that girl under my wing and she turned around and did this!"
Celeste knew her mother wasn't completely innocent. A person wouldn't try to get someone else sent to hell for no reason. "What did she have against you? What did you do to her?"
"I left her for dead." Marie said simply. It was as if she hadn't even realized that she had done anything wrong.
"I told you that eventually you were going to be made into a fool for treating people the way you do."
"Oh, shut up before I drag you back to hell with me." Marie threatened.
"Is it as bad as they say? Fire and brimstone?" Celeste didn't think anyone deserved that bad of a punishment, not even Marie.
"No, nothin' like that. It's your own version of hell. Whatever makes you the most miserable just keeps happenin' over and over. It's on a time loop." Marie had only been dead for a week, but it felt like years.
"And what makes you the most miserable?"
"I'm stuck torturin' innocent girls." Her mood turned grim.
"That's what makes you the most miserable? I thought it would be having me around."
"Well you ain't in hell with me yet. It might change once you get here."
Fed up, Celeste started to swim to the top of the water. Marie pulled her by her foot again. "I'm jokin' Lily Pad. With all those Christian books you write, you'll probably be the only one I know who actually makes it into heaven."
"There's nothing I can do to bring you back? What if I find your parts?" Even with a detailed map she'd never be able to find every part of Marie. She only knew of one place in New Orleans and that was Cornrow City.
"I've never known anyone to bring a witch back from hell. My fate is sealed." Marie sighed.
"At least you aren't the one being tortured. I'm finding it hard to feel sorry for you."
"Fuck you! I'm not lookin' for sympathy. The only reason I'm here is to pass on my crown."
"What crown?" Celeste only saw the turban on her head.
"I'm talkin' figurately." Marie seemed to be annoyed with Celeste's naivety. "You the next in line to be Voodoo Queen. The Supreme to the white witches has taken it upon herself to appoint Dinah Stevens as the new priestess. Everything I had should belong to my next of kin, which is you. Take your rightful place as the true Voodoo Queen." She said smoothly.
"How am I supposed to do that?" She didn't even know that white witches existed, let alone what a Supreme was and where she got her authority.
"Find the coven. Cordelia will have you perform the seven wonders. Dinah can do six, but she was the only one who wanted the title."
Cordelia? Dinah? Who were these women? "I'm not a witch. I've never performed any magic before."
"Because I took your power. With me gone my magic has flowed into you. You can do the seven wonders because I could. In our community a Voodoo Queen has just as much power as the Supreme of the Salem descendants." It was just like Marie to hog what should have belonged to them both.
Celeste panicked. "I don't' even know what the seven wonders are. How am I expected to do them?"
"Find the coven. Take your crown. Find the Coven. Take your crown. Find the coven. Take your crown." Marie's echo started to fade. The water took on its muddy color. Celeste's throat tightened. She couldn't breathe.
She woke up in bed choking on dirty water and coughing up algae. She gasped for air. Her hair and gown were soaking wet. The 1,800-thread-count sheets would never be the same. "That's not possible. She can't be dead. She was never supposed to die." This had been another one of Celeste's nightmares. Even though she wasn't close to her mother, she was still the only person she had in the world. The white woman who raised her abandoned her at only ten years old.
"Take yo' ass into town and see that I'm the only thing people are talkin' 'bout." This was a first. She had never heard Marie's voice in her head before.