The Moon, the Illusion
Tonight was the night. And I just knew my Charlie doll couldn't wait to get started.
I, on the other hand, wasn't as hyped on the inside as I was showing on the outside. Y'all folks know what I was really up to. Hey, I was the bad guy, what can I say? I'm bad and I'm proud of it. I was about to mess up the damsel's distress call and make a huge leap towards a generous profit.
But I couldn't let any of my tension show. Yeah, I'll admit I was a little tense, if I slipped up then I might blow my cover and my doll would start wondering why I'm trying to stop her. I don't really need to paint a picture of what would happen if I messed up tonight. You guys should know how I work by now.
Besides, if my friends knew I was under pressure they might lose some faith in their favourite follower. I couldn't screw this up. I would lose everything!
"I can't afford to make any mistakes." My Charlie doll worried to herself. "I would lose everything."
"Hey, c'mon." I wrapped my hand around her waist. "Don't go getting yourself all worked up." To tell ya the truth, I was kinda hoping she would. I might not even have to lift a finger if her spell failed and her hotshot god never heard her call for help.
I watched her wiggled her little tush over to the table and it wiggled a little more than usual this time. She was skinny, so it ain't like she's got much of an ass to wiggle anyway, but she was hugging hold of something pretty weighty in her arms which made her steps heavier. Until now I hadn't managed to get a good look at that magic book of hers. Heck, the last time I remember seeing that thing was in the early days before my Charlie doll even knew what her magic looked like.
At least she wouldn't have to struggle with that big old bulk for much longer as she unwrapped her arms and got ready to drop the book on the cloth, (shame, cause I kinda liked watching her tush jiggle like that).
Finally she let the hunk of leather slide from her fingers and it slammed down on the table, blowing up dust and fumes. Hey, where'd that grey cloud come from? I dusted up on that table.
The draught that blew out from under that book puffed in my face, blowing my hair for just a split second. I swear, that breeze sounded like whispers as it rushed past my ears. It was like I could hear the incantations of Charlie's ghost friends trying to spook me. Geez, what was the deal with this centuries-old codex? This was some creepy merchandise right here.
"It's heavier than a typical book, even one identical to it's size." My doll let me in on the details. "Because it's not made of paper."
"Then just what is this hunk o' junk made of?" I ran my finger along the spine of the scaly book. "Snake skin by the feel of it."
"Dragon. Actually."
It's made of what? Ain't those things supposed to be extinct? Or mythical?
"The cover is made of dragon scales." My doll gave her explanation, but it only helped to spook me even more. "The pages are made of shed dragon skin. It means the book can't be burned. Dragon cells, even dead dragons cells are fireproof."
Now I've done enough hoodoo in my lifetime to know that sometimes magic can get a little dark, especially when your resources can sometimes come from dead animals. But even I was a little chilled by the fact that I'd just run my finger across what was left of a dead dragon.
"Eh." I took my finger away and rubbed it against my thumb a few times, hoping to smudge away anything nasty. "So nothin' in this world can break that book?"
My doll shook her head. "Not even Suenamoon's magic can destroy it, she even tried once. And it can't be ripped or torn either. It's enchanted, the book itself is like a spell. Just like Mortè Legamè, there are some spells that cannot be undone. Not even by a god. This book is one of them."
I know some spells can't be undone, she didn't have to tell me. I was no rookie. I may not have the luxury of owning my own magic, but that don't mean I don't know how to use the stuff. I just wanted to know how reliable that thousand-year-old catalog was. I wondered if she might have no magic to work with if somebody 'accidentally' threw it into the fire or chopped it into a thousand pieces. I guess that was one fantastic plan I had to toss aside.
My Charlie doll kept on talking as I took another look at the symbols on the front cover, recognising some of them to be voodoo Vevè.
"She kept this book for more than three-thousand years to keep it safe from any mortal who might accidentally read it. Even though it's written in five different languages. All of which are dead tongues."
"And you can read every single one of them?" A no-brainer question, I know.
"I can." Told ya so. "The skill came naturally even before Suenamoon gave me my book, and my magic."
"So what does it say across the top there?" Those characters weren't voodoo. They weren't even recognisable, looked like hebrew or something.
"Well, it basically says: 'Do not read from this book'."
Now I know the kind of trouble you can getcha self into by dabbling in forces you don't understand. Trust me. I learned that the hard way when I started dabbling in voodoo when I was a kid. "Don't cha think you oughta heed that warning?"
"No." She said short and sweet, almost as if she simply didn't care. "This isn't the first time I've read these pages, remember?"
"I just hope ya know what cha doin'." I lied through my teeth, secretly hoping that she would mess it all up.
"I hope so too." She didn't sound confident. Good. Now let's get this party started.
I heard more of those eerie little whispers as my doll opened the book for the first time. Where the hell were all those creepy noises coming from? 'Do not read from this book', huh? I was sure glad I wasn't the one turning those pages.
"Here she is." My Charlie doll put her finger on the open page and pointed to a half butterfly, half skull picture. I heard her whispering to herself as she read the scribbles under the image, even though I couldn't tell a word she was saying because she was still speaking in dead tongues. " …'Eh gasha te de morte de vite'…'The one who is between the living and the dead'." She finally said in plain english for me.
"Alright, the first thing I need to do is make way for the moonlight." Charlie doll glanced up at the ceiling where all my drapes hung down from. "Its light has to shine down and make contact with my magic if this is going to work."
I looked with her. That ceiling was pretty far up, it went all the way to the roof of the building. But there was just one little problem. "How do you expect to make that happen?" I enquired as it was obvious that you couldn't see the sky. "We'd have to go upstairs if you wanted to see the moon from in here."
I saw her raise her hand up and reach towards the wood under the roof. I always got pretty edgy when she pointed those fingers around, I knew what kinda trouble that magic of hers could stir up. She wasn't about to make a hole in my roof now, was she?
Out came that blue sparkle from her fingertips and I watched it stream all the way up the wall, skimming across the curtains like a waterfall defying gravity before splashing down on the ceiling and washing over the wood. No sooner had it splashed then it started to fade out. I saw stars, and no, I wasn't getting mesmerized from the magic. That was a night sky shining right above me.
"Hey, what gives, girl?" I tried to not get all huffy puffy, but there was a goddamn hole in my roof!
"It'll be gone when the spell's over." My Charlie doll tried her hardest to reassure me that the damage wouldn't last. "Trust me."
Yeah, like hell I would. I wouldn't trust that magic of hers to turn a prince into a frog. Although having said that, I knew what she was capable of if she put her mind to it. She'd gotten better all the time but I still hoped that she'd screw up this time, just like she did in those early days. At least 'hoping' wasn't the only resource I had. I had a backup plan and I was prepared for the worst with my dust on standby in my pocket.
The last of her sparkly blue faded out and there was the moon, full, bright and ready to shine a spotlight. The doll placed her left hand on the page, right where that picture was. She closed her eyes and aimed those magic fingers on her other hand back at the moon. This time the magic started flowing out through her other hand. Glitter from her fingertips scattered over the page. I wasn't really sure what was going on and I felt kinda dumb now knowing. But this kinda magic wasn't voodoo, this was a whole new show unfolding before my eyes. Shame I wouldn't get to see this show to the end because it was kinda pretty.
I took hold of a pinch of dust from my pocket while her eyes were closed, just a little pinch to see what would happen, and with one breath I scattered it across the open pages. My disappearing act looked like it was gonna work, because the sparkle was gone.
I wanted her to see this for herself. "Ain't cha gonna open your eyes, sweetheart?" I whispered, trying not to sound sly or nothing.
"I don't need to see." She whispered back. "I need to feel."
She what now? So what, was she about to perform the whole spell with her eyes closed?
That magic of hers started sparkling again, I saw it fade through my cover-up as it changed colour. The whole page started to fill up like it was some kinda paint-by-numbers. The butterfly turned blue and black, the skull turned white. I took out another handful of powder and worked my own magic, trying to mask my doll's. Once again her spells vanished, invisible to the naked eye.
"Charlie doll." I had to get her to open her eyes. I had to get her to see this while my illusion was working. "Sweetheart, nothin's happening."
"No." Her voice trembled as she talked to me. "I can feel it."
"Doll, open your eyes. It didn't work." I begged her in a friendly sounding voice, trying to sound a little hopeless as I lied. "Doll?" She didn't say anything to me this time. "Charlie doll?" Why wasn't she talking?
I looked back down and again I saw her magic over power my own. I tried not to worry, another hand full of glittering illusion and I covered the whole thing up. But this time, my vanishing act didn't work. Those pretty colours were still there even after my pink dust cloud faded away.
I tried again, trying to use my own magic to mask hers. But hers was the real thing! Every time my illusions made the pretty pictures disappear they would burn through the dust and shine again.
And that wasn't the worst part. The light from the moon started getting brighter as it shone down on those dragon-skin pages. How the hell was I gonna cover that up? This wasn't happening! Tell me that this wasn't happening!
Those voices… Those damn spooky voices from the book started whispering in my ear again. No wait, they weren't in my ears this time, there were echoing all around the goddamn room. No… Tell me these voices weren't her god. Tell me that she wasn't about to pull this off after all my hard work to stop her! After all this time!
I wasn't the only one who'd gotten all worked up at the sound of these eerie whispers. I saw my shadow covering his ears as he cowered in the moonlight, looking all helpless and acting all useless as usual.
"Get a hold of yourself, ya big baby!" I yelled at him, ignoring the fact that my Charlie doll might have heard me, even though she looked like she was in some kinda trance. "Here!" I grabbed a fist full of powder and shoved it into his hands. "Make yourself useful for once while I try and snap her out of it!"
I saw him crawl away from the moonlight on his hands and knees, like the light was weighing him down or something. Any other time, light would be a shadow's best friend. Light can make shadows, but it can also take them away!
I looked back over to the doll who was still stood there with her hand on the book and her magic doing its thing. I couldn't let this carry on. This was a disaster! Any second now that god of hers was gonna show up and my friends would be in trouble. And then I would be in even deeper trouble! I know what those guys could do to me if I made them mad, and nothing was gonna make them madder than seeing a rival god who could put them outta business!
"Charlie doll!" I rushed back over to her. "C'mon, doll! Snap out of it!" I cupped hold of her cheeks and tried to open her eyes. I was on the verge of slapping her in the face here! But as I stared into her eyelids I saw something, something that looked like the pretty pictures in her book. Half a butterfly started painting itself over her left eyelid and stretched out over her cheek. On the other side a skull, not unlike my own when I work my magic, painted itself over her skin.
I let her go. Whatever this was I didn't want it crawling onto my skin! It wasn't voodoo and I didn't wanna touch the stuff!
I looked back at my shadow who was still cowering in the moonlight. "Get ch-your ass up of the damn floor!" I yelled at him again. "Get over here and help me, ya, no-good slimeball!"
I heard the doll mutter to herself as she took her hand off the book and started holding the side of her head like all this magic was giving her a headache. "Suenamoon…"
No… No, no, no! This wasn't supposed to happen! She wasn't supposed to get this far!
That magic of hers, now it was leaking onto the table. I didn't want that unstable blue sparkle spreading any further than the doll and her book. But there was nothing I could do as I watched it shimmering all over the floor. Lighting up anything it touched.
This couldn't be happening. This wasn't happening! I had to stop this! I had to stop this before-
*CRASH!*
…Then…outta nowhere…this big almighty bang sent shockwaves throughout my whole Emporium, vibrating like a tremor over the blue twinkle as the shimmer vanished. Out it went, just like a candle.
I was thrown off my feet and my hat off my head. There I landed in all my merchandise, dust everywhere, and I wasn't talking about my illusion. All I could see for the first ten seconds was grey. When the cloud cleared I saw my hat, the red banner showing up from under all the smashed up junk it was buried in.
I got up, ignoring anything else that might have been broken. Just tell me my hat was alright, if there was just one little mark on it I was gonna…
…That no good, clumsy broad! There was a scratch on my hat! Right across the rim, all the threads had been cut along the top. Oh, I was mad. And this time I wasn't sure if I was going to restrain myself and hold back! I was so mad I could have choked that doll! I could have strangled her with my bare hands and fed her soul to the Loa!
"…mmmhh…"
I heard a faint sound, like the sound of somebody crying their little eyes out. I looked over to the turned-up table and saw something moving underneath one of my fallen-down drapes. I'm not gonna lie, I was still pretty mad. She'd broken my merchandise, trashed my place and scratched my hat. But it was kinda hard to stay mad hearing her whimpering like that.
I pulled back the fallen curtain to find her curled up with her knees tucked in and her face stained with tears.
"…I'm sorry!" She sobbed at me. "I'm sorry, Michael. I'm so sorry. I lost it. For one little moment my mind wandered and I lost my thoughts. I was doing so well, then I thought about what you said about it not working. Then I thought, maybe it wasn't working, what if it didn't work."
Well what do ya know? After all that, all it took was one word of discouragement from sly lips and my doll crumbled. No illusions, no voodoo tricks. Just my own devious lies.
I took one more look around, spotting all the junk she'd busted up with her kooky powers. Yeesh, this was gonna take weeks to fix by myself. But you know what? It was my job to stop her. And if all this mess was the result of all my hard work then I couldn't really put all the blame on her.
"I started getting scared." She kept on crying and just rambled on as I crawled under the tipped up table with her. "And then I lost my grip and…"
I put a finger to her lips. I had to shut her up, not just to stop her getting worked up, but I had a pretty short fuse at that moment and I didn't want her igniting it again.
She leaned on me, buried her head in my chest and hung her arms over my shoulders. "I'm so sorry." She kept on apologising. "I'll fix it. I'll make it up to you. I'll do something, I promise."
I couldn't stay mad at her, I really couldn't, Yeah, I was pretty pissed off when I looked around my old place to find that most of my stuff had been broken. But to tell y'all the truth, most of it was probably broken already.
I took a deep breath and hugged her back. I couldn't help but give in to her pitiful tears. And hey, at least this meant me and my friends wouldn't have to worry about her god making a show anytime soon.
"C'mon, now." I started getting on up and helping her do the same. "Let's go dry those sapphire eyes."
