Authors Note:
This story takes place two years after the events in Fall of Innocence. I suggest reading it, but this also works as a stand alone novel.
Creative liberties were taken with the Ritual practices described in the story line, I am a practicing Wiccan, and proud of it. If you are interested in pursuing the path I recommend Grimore for the Green Witch by Moira. It is an excellent starting point for the beginner, and Solitary Practitioner.
Haitian Voudou (Non pop culture spelling is being used for this storyline.) is deeply shrouded in secrecy and is closely guarded by the persons who practice it. it was a frightening journey for a person like myself to research, and I do not recommend studying the dark Magiks in it. However I do believe that you need to study the dark in order to understand the light. Please look into the subject at your own discretion.
The Tarot deck mentioned is the Shadowscapes Tarot, and is one of my favorites to own, for the purpose of the story, I used a Past, Present, Future draw, and the meanings of the cards are one hundred percent accurate.
Prions are real, so is global terrorism, it is only a matter of time before a weaponized virus comes to light that is created to commit horrendous acts. Humanity is it's own worst enemy at times and I sometimes believe that science is scarier than anything on the television.
The firearms in the story are accurate, I have a working knowledge of them and I have fired them and described them fairly accurately. I am a sport shooter and teach firearms safety in my spare time and enjoy teaching others about the weapons.
Fragmentation grenades are nasty...nuff said.
The Deep Web continues to exist, and in my research I had to dump a bucket of Clorox Bleach over my heard after viewing it. I will never go back again.
All science in the story is as always, accurate. Creative liberties have been taken however for the sake of the tale.
Bigfoot is still angry that the Aliens took Elvis.
This story is dedicated to my Grandmother.
She walks in the Summerland and waits for me to join her.
Witches at heart.
Prologue:
Now this is the law of the jungle
As old and a true as the sky.
And the wolf that will keep it may prosper,
But the wolf that shall break it must die.
(Kipling)
The quake ended as abruptly as it started, leaving fear and devastation in the aftermath. Shattered lives and bodies, buried under collapsed buildings across Haiti, cries tore through the city of Port au Prince as darkness began to descend on the city.
She lay in the darkness of the market that had fallen down around her. Her body fell into a void and she screamed out as voices drifted down to her in the confinement of her small pocket. She looked up and sent out prayers to Papa Legba and hoped he heard her voice as the fading light filtered down to her, dust filtering it to a dim haze that threatened to choke her. She looked over and saw her dead mother, and cried out in sadness, waiting for the building to shift and bury her. Crushing her into nothing in the void as she joined the rest of her family in death.
"Leonie." She heard in the darkness below her and she tried to shift in her small space to look, but couldn't see where the voice came from.
"Who is there? Papa?" She asked and she smelled cigar smoke, and heard a cold laugh behind her.
"No girl, I am not Papa, but I will answer your prayers if you serve us." The voice said and she shifted a bit, she sniffed, trying to free her hand to wipe the tears from her face. The voice tempted her with its velvet smoothness, and the cigar scent wafted up to her again.
"Yes. Please don't let me die, I will serve you. I want to live" She said into the darkness and heard a laugh and she cried again, sobs shaking her and making her tremble.
"You will be saved, and become my most devoted Bokor, Leonie, your soul now belongs to me for all time." The voice said and the smell of cigar smoke cleared away as she heard shifting in the building above her. Two men looked into her void and she blinked as they shined flashlights down onto her.
"We found a survivor!" The men shouted in Haitian and began digging debris from around her, the sound above her becoming deafening as she trembled under the piles of rock, concrete, and re-bar that were removed until a space was made. A space that was big enough to pull her through.
"Thank you!" She cried out as the men lifted her out of her void and she cried tears of joy that were cut off as she saw the devastation around her. He mouth fell open and she cried out in shock and nearly fell over as the Red Cross worker caught her up and carried her over to get medical attention.
Time passed and people looked at her, they said kind words as they worked and offered her comfort. Her cuts were cleaned and she was allowed to rest, but no one came back to her to check on her until an old man in red linen pants came. Leaning on his walking stick and smiled down at her.
"What happened? Why are all the buildings down?" Leonie asked in shock and the man looked down at her as he settled himself into a cot next to hers and motioned for her to rest.
"It was an Earthquake Leonie." The old man said as he sat on the cot next to hers, she looked at him as he tapped the ground with his walking stick and she studied him.
"The Earth moved and your family died," He said and looked at her and let out a breath. "That is life Leonie, you must accept that if you wish to serve us properly."
"Papa Legba?" She asked, lifting her head in shock and the man smiled and nodded at her as she cried again. The man gave her time and looked down at her as she scratched his white beard and then patted her head softly.
"You heard my prayers, and saved me. I will serve the Loa always." She said and looked at him, Legba smiled at her and picked up his staff and he tapped the ground again as he walked among the injured.
"I know you will Leonie, you owe us your loyalty now." He said and looked around him, rubbing his finger along a key tied in his sash and a door opened, he turned and smiled at her as he stepped through it and vanished.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Leonie Ezora Mentoumbu" The Red Cross worker called out and she looked up from the list of places she could choose to leave Haiti for. She stood up and smoothed her borrowed dress over her hips and looked down as the woman waved her through the door into her office. She sat down at the desk, trying to get comfortable in the plastic chair and looked at the woman as she flipped through the file in front of her. She glanced up at Leonie over her glassed and smiled.
"You have a very pretty name dear, and have been through so much." The woman said to her and sighed. She flipped one page after another, looking down at the forms and picked up a pen, tapping the folder with it and she looked up at her and smiled.
"You did not fill in a state that you would prefer as your new home dear, can I help you chose one?" The woman asked and she nodded at the woman and smiled.
"Yes Please, I do not know which one is most like Haiti." She said and smiled at the woman politely, she wrote a name down in the blank space and showed her the word.
"You will love Florida dear, there is a nice area called Miami, and it is sunny nearly all the time." She said and smiled at Leonie, closing the folder and holding up a hospital style bracelet and wrapped it around her wrist gently. She smiled at her again and looked at her and held her hand out to shake hers.
"We will get your visa ready, and soon you will be on your way to your new home dear, I hope you have a wonderful new life in America." The woman said and stood up from behind her desk and handed her an envelope, she guided Leonie to the door, putting a hand in the small of her back.
"God bless you young lady. I will send up prayers for you." The woman said and opened the door for her.
"I will ask Papa Legba to bless you for helping me, I will have him send good spirits to you." Leonie said and the woman smiled back at her politely, patting her hands gently.
"That is very nice of you dear." She replied and walked her to the front of the tent and looked at her kindly as she picked up another folder for a person who needed help. So many lives needing a new home after the devastation.
Leonie left the tent and stepped out onto the hard, paved road as a group of men walked past carrying another body for burial. The stench of death that had permeated the air hung over everything as the victims of the quake began to rot under the rubble. She pulled her scarf over her nose and turned and walked back to her tent in the center of the park and wandered in and out of the makeshift shelters. Children cried around her and she opened her makeshift home and crawled into it, pressing the envelope against her chest and cried happy tears as she dozed and dreamed of her new home across the ocean.
Her sleep was interrupted by a noise from far away, a low rumble that spread through out the camp. She sat up in her tent and looked around confused. Her mind still foggy with sleep could barely comprehend the sound and she crawled toward the tent opening. She clutched the envelope to her and and crawled through the opening to see men shooting into random tents, other men pulled children from them as they took anything they wanted in their spree. She turned and ran from her shelter, running from the men with guns and sent out silent prayers to the Loa as she rushed over to a tree.
A woman screamed as one of the men forced her legs apart and he unbuttoned his pants, she did not stop to help, because if she did, she risked becoming his next victim. Instead she ran, she ran for her survival, and she ran as fast as her legs carried her.
Bullets tore into a tent to her left, missing her by inches and she ducked over a low wall and kept moving among the fallen buildings, her feet being true as they carried her forward. She found a place to hide and looked back down on the park where the people had gathered together and saw the chaos unfold as she stood shaking on the mid afternoon sun. She saw shelters on fire and the men who had come to raid the camp were laughing and waving guns and machetes into the air, they celebrated their take and took more in their fury.
"Papa Legba, why?" She asked and shivered as she watched the men beat an old woman because she had nothing to give them in return for her safety.
"Stop them, Papa, I beg you." She said and sank to the dirt floor of the former house, her knees found pieces of glass and she was cut by the tiny shards, her blood dripping to mingle with the dirt.
"Papa Legba, please save us all." She repeated until the screams fell silent and darkness fell around her as the day faded to night, her prayers never answered and her mind in shock as she stood back up and walked back to the camp.
She walked among the remains of the tents and found bodies scattered about, her eyes took in a man hanging from a tree nearby and she cried out in fear as she saw the body swing back and forth on the breeze, his face swollen and bloated. She avoided walking under it and made her way back to her own tent and saw it still standing, untouched and small among the rest of them. Soldiers wearing special police armbands walked into the camp and looked around the carnage, taking in everything and walked past the woman who stood in shock, her eyes staring into nothing. One man used a bottle of water to clean her knees as she stood near her tent, he applied medicines and bandages but there was no medicine that could heal her soul. No bandage to heal the wound that was torn through her mind by the act of nature and the brutal acts of men.
She pushed the tent flap aside and ducked into the tent and sat among her meager possessions, she opened her hands over en envelope and crossed her legs in front of her as she smoothed the wrinkled documents in front of her on the floor of the tent. She looked at the papers and thanked the Loa for keeping what little she had safe. She stared at the domed tent around her and started offering prayers that the Loa would give her the power one day to punish evil men like that. Any power she could find to be more powerful and not feel helpless ever again, the Loa would hear her call, they would grant her the guidance she needed.
The Loa had given her so much already, perhaps they could give her more if she begged them.
They were so kind to her already.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
She walked across the tarmac. The macadam shimmering under her feet in the heat as the boarded the airplane that waited to take her away, to her new home and new life. Her suitcase rolled along behind her and a large leather bound book tucked under her arm.
The people who boarded with her ignored the girl carrying the book she had found in the rubble two days ago, the book she believed the Loa had guided her to in their wisdom, the book that she now protected with all her being. She had read most of it and the book spoke of a great power that only she could posses if she worked to attain it.
She found her seat and sat down as a woman offered to put her suitcase into the overhead compartment for her. She nodded and smiled at the stewardess as her bag filled with very little was lifted into the compartment, and the woman told her that food would be brought to her soon. Another man walked by in his fancy uniform and handed her a blanket, and she spread it neatly over her lap as she sat back into the comfortable seat and opened the book again and read from the pages. He mind memorized every detail of the written words, and she smiled down at the pages.
Each ritual detailed and perfectly written out for her to use in the near future, her mind working as she looked down at the pages. She turned the page and thanked Papa Legba for showing her this book, she thanked all the Loa and promised her soul to doing their great works on Earth. Her thin hands traced over the pages as she looked down at the pictures and charts inked into the pages, all hand written and carefully sketched into the pages as she looked down at them, admiring the skill it took to create the book.
She read the passage about a powerful weapon that could be used to bring her great power, and smiled as she hugged the open book to her chest. The spine protested as she crushed the book into her breasts, and she gently set it back into her lap as she smoothed the pages. She would treasure this book, and take good care of her gift from the fates. This book was now the most important thing she owned, and she read the ritual to herself as the plane began taxiing down toward the runway. She frowned at the pages and closed the book gently in thought, Leonie was going to have to truly break her personal laws of doing no harm in order to bring forth the Sword.
The ritual would require sacrifice, and she was willing to do it as she closed her eyes as the land below her faded into ocean.
Blood was demanded, she needed blood and souls.
She would have them both soon.