Chapter 10: Amulet

Kate left the motel with Richie's words ringing in her head. I'll never be anything better than this. It was true though, wasn't it? He would never stop craving for blood and he would never enjoy the warmth of the sun. His skin would always feel cold and lifeless like a stone and his heart would remain silent – and there would always be a hidden creature within him ready to come out. He was going to be a culebra until the day he died – that was, if he ever did die.

Kate hadn't really stopped to think about what it meant for Richie. Sure, she had stood by his side when Seth hadn't, but she had no idea how he actually felt about the whole situation. She had been busy swimming in self-pity, stuck with her own thoughts about her dead father, Scott, and whether Richie had feelings for her or not… And then Richie had to go and blurt out something like that, saying it like there was no hope, as if he had accepted it already a while ago.

Hell, Kate felt bad.

It was clear her own life was a total mess, but things didn't look that great for Richie either. He may have appeared as if everything was just fine, but what really went through his head… of that, Kate had no clue. Truth be told, she didn't know much about Richard Gecko, but Richard Gecko knew a lot about her. A lot of things she didn't even tell her own family.

She knew she should have felt weird about that, but she didn't. She just wished she could have said the same about Richie.

Well, at least I have plenty of time to get to know him now, she thought darkly, and started heading toward town.

The weather was still uncomfortably hot, even though there were clouds gathering in the sky. Kate squinted her eyes to see if there were enough to make some rain, but unfortunately they looked too white and innocent. Gosh, does it ever rain here? she thought, and wiped off drops of sweat that had gathered on her upper lip. Her head was still throbbing from pain and the humid air seemed to make it even worse. She had thought about finding a drugstore to buy some painkillers, but the idea of interacting with someone in her state of mind was almost as tempting as the thought of pouring salt on her broken lip.

Instead, she decided to try and visit Pau again, hoping she would be at home this time. She didn't know what day it was, but she was almost sure it was Saturday. Without her phone (which had vanished somewhere inside the temple), she had managed to lose track of time, and hadn't had a chance to miss it yet. Since she didn't really have anyone to call or text anymore, the whole thing seemed kind of useless. Besides, it wouldn't have even worked outside the States. Right now a phone would have been handy: she could have just called Pau to make sure she was at home.

When Kate finally reached the town, she was sure it had to be the weekend, because no one but the shopkeepers seemed to be working. The other townsmen were buying fresh fruit, window-shopping, or just loitering on the streets. Kate kept her head down and tried not to draw any attention. She didn't want to run into anyone who had been at the bar the day before.

She hurried through the streets, quickly reaching Pau's house. She climbed the stairs and knocked on the front door – recalling right after doing so that Pau had mentioned something about a husband. Before she had time to think about what to do if Pau wasn't at home, she heard steps and soon the door opened. She had just enough time to see Pau's delighted face before her expression was replaced by a look of shock.

"Dios mío, Kate! What happened to you?" Pau gasped and grabbed Kate's hand. "Come on in!" Kate sighed and stepped inside the house, and Pau hurried to close the door after her. Pau was wearing a light pink dress and her hair was down, the heavy locks of black hair resting on her shoulders. There was a light scent of jasmine flowers lingering around her.

"Come sit down," she fussed and led Kate to the living room. Kate sat down in one of the colorful armchairs, and Pau stood in front of her, her hands on her hips.

"Now, what happened? Who did it?" she demanded, frowning.

Shit.

Kate realized she had a lot of explaining to do. Of course Pau was going to ask her about the bruises – had she really thought she could walk into Pau's house, get some Aspirin and leave without any questions? And Pau looked angry, so it wasn't very likely that she could avoid the whole subject altogether.

"Uhm," was, however, the first thing that escaped her mouth and she facepalmed herself mentally. Pau's enraged frown deepened, but Kate knew it wasn't really issued at her, so she tried again.

"First of all, it was an accident. And… we ran into some trouble yesterday, that's all."

"What kind of trouble?" Pau pressed, her eyebrows getting so close to each other she almost started to resemble Frida Kahlo. "And what you mean, an accident?"

"Well, we were at a bar–"

"A bar?!" Pau shrieked, making Kate wince. Clearly that hadn't been the magic word that would have set things straight.

"What you do at a bar? And who is we? Are you talking about your friends, the ones you are staying with?"

Kate felt as if she was being interrogated, but it only reminded her of her parents who never got tired of giving her the same lecture when she had been reckless enough to come home three minutes after the curfew. It was good she still had someone to do it now that they were gone.

"Yes, I was with them, but it wasn't a big deal or anything," Kate explained. "We just had a few drinks and then we got into a small fight and–"

"A fight?!"

Nope, that wasn't the magic word either.

"How you get into a fight? And how they let you inside a bar, you children?" Pau kept going. Her expression had turned puzzled with a hint of suspicion, as if she had been in doubt whether Kate was telling the truth or not.

She was, but now it occurred to her that she had never mentioned she was traveling with two grown-up men. Well, of course she had also left out the part of the men being wanted criminals, but that was something she couldn't slip into a conversation so easily.

"Well, they're not exactly the same age as I am…" Kate muttered, hoping Pau wouldn't get stuck on that particular detail.

Pau let out an exasperated sigh and let her arms fall to her sides.

"Kate, I would like to meet these friends of yours," she said firmly, and Kate swallowed. "They do not sound like they are a very good company for you, no."

She was giving Kate The Mom Look – the one that said I'm the boss here and you'll listen to what I say. But as much as she would have liked to, Kate couldn't just introduce Richie to Pau, and then try to explain how Seth had taken off and left her alone in a strange town with someone who looked like a recovering heroin addict – not to mention the fact that they weren't actually on a pleasure trip. We're escaping both the American police and a demonic snake woman, how's that sound?

No, it didn't sound too good.

"Pau, I know you worry about me, but I'm okay. We're okay," Kate said. It was the best she could do without having to lie to Pau, and it was as true as it got – Richie and she were doing quite okay, all things considered. Pau's expression remained worried, but the wrinkles between her eyebrows faded a little.

"Fine," she huffed. "But if it happen again, you come straight to me."

"I will."

Somehow, Kate had a feeling Pau wasn't going to just let her off the hook, but for now she seemed to accept her feeble explanations.

"Now we have to do something to that horrible bruise," Pau sighed, examining Kate's face with her dark eyes.

"I was just gonna ask if you had some Aspirin," Kate hurried to say, but Pau tsk'ed.

"No, no, I have just a right thing for this. Wait here," she said, and quickly disappeared to the bathroom.

Kate could hear her opening the bathroom cabinets, clearly looking for something, but other than that the house was quiet, so Kate figured Pau's husband and Marisol were not at home. She felt relieved by that, not wanting to meet any new people while looking like she had run into a wall. The encounter with Pau's daughter hadn't been that successful, and she wasn't so keen on seeing Pau's husband either. Somehow she felt like Pau and she were in this (whatever it was) together, and she found it calming – as if bringing someone from the outside would break the bubble.

Pau soon came back carrying a brown pouch. She put it on the table next to the armchair and went through it, muttering something in Spanish. Finally, she pulled out a jar filled with a light green substance.

"This should ease the pain," she said, and she opened the lid and dipped two of her fingers in the substance. She crouched a little to be on the same level with Kate, and then brought the fingers to her jaw, carefully spreading the lotion on her skin. Kate flinched, but not from pain – the green stuff felt surprisingly cold.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Ah, just some aloe vera and herbs," Pau answered. Her eyebrows were furrowed together again, and she had a concentrated look in her eyes. She used her clean hand to brush away a strand of hair that had fallen in her face, and that's when Kate noticed she was wearing a brown leather necklace. The pendant part was hidden inside Pau's dress, but Kate already knew what it was.

The bat amulet.

There was a sinking feeling in Kate's stomach and she felt cold all of a sudden. She's wearing it around her neck!

Pau seemed to notice Kate had tensed and straightened herself.

"I hurt you?" she asked, looking worried.

"N-no," Kate stuttered. "I was just looking at… that necklace."

Pau raised her eyebrows and brought her hands on her cleavage, as if just remembering she was wearing a piece of jewelry.

"This?" she said, and tugged the leather strap so that the amulet came into view. It was just as ugly as Kate remembered, even more so now that she knew what it represented.

"Why do you have it?" she asked quickly, not even caring if she sounded a little rude. The thing gave her chills.

"Why you want to know?" Pau asked, maybe a bit too lightly, touching the amulet tenderly with her fingertips.

"I saw it earlier in the bathroom," Kate started, carefully observing how her words affected Pau. "So when I visited this shop, I tried looking for the same kind of amulet. The shopkeeper said the bat is cursed or something. That you should never wear it around your neck."

For a second Pau's face was completely blank and she let the amulet fall from her hands. Then, she let out a noise that sounded like something between a laugh and a snort. Kate blinked. It wasn't the reaction she had been waiting for.

"He also tell you about Camazotz?" Pau asked, chuckling. Her dark eyes twinkled.

"Y-yeah, he did," Kate answered, surprised. "How did you know?"

"I know the man, Hector. He is... how you say it in English… pura mierda… ah, full of shit," Pau blurted, a look of amusement on her face. "He always tells stories to tourists. Thinks he can make them buy more of his crap."

Kate frowned. The man had refused to sell her anything after she had asked about the amulet.

"So it's not true, then? The things about Camazotz," she asked hesitantly. She wasn't really convinced there hadn't been even the tiniest crumb of truth in Hector's story. The man had seemed truly frightened.

Pau's smile faltered a little, and she sighed.

"No, they are true," she said slowly, and touched the amulet that was resting against her chest. "Camazotz is a very strong legend. Still, many people believe it exists. But Hector, he is not able to see. He is scared of things he should not be. Not everything is black and white, Kate."

Oh, don't I know about that, Kate thought. Her current life was definitely in the gray area.

So Camazotz really existed (or so Pau seemed to believe). Of course, it might as well have been true. Some of the weirdest, unlikeliest things were true these days – Kate herself had learnt it the hard way. And maybe Camazotz was like culebras. They weren't all bad.

"So you… you use the amulet for something then?" she asked, feeling more intrigued than afraid now.

"Ah, not exactly…" Pau uttered, and hid the amulet under her dress. "It stays with me for protection. Sometimes you need a more evil thing to protect you from the most evil."

Kate quickly raised her gaze to meet Pau's, and when she stared into those beautiful dark orbs of hers, she was suddenly sure Pau knew everything about her and her family and Richie, but then the moment had gone and all she could see was her own double reflection, looking back from the depths of Pau's eyes.

"Your face looks better now. Still hurting?" Pau asked casually, averting her gaze as she closed the jar of lotion and dropped it inside the brown pouch. Kate brought a hand to her jaw and gently run her fingers over the bruise. It felt a lot less swollen now, and she realized the headache was gone too.

"No, it's much better…"

"Good. It's time for lunch, then."

A/N: Not even gonna comment on my updating speed...