Chapter 9
1984
That old man, the gri gri shaman didn't seem to have the goods. Oh, he had lizard feet and weird powders that flashed when he threw them into fires and he had books and candles and a toothless grin that was just about the most demented thing Charles Lee Ray had ever seen. But so far up to that point his mumbo jumbo bullshit had done much for ol' Charles Ray. Though there had been a few things, he felt less fear walking into people's homes, their apartments as though he were truly impermeable. Protected by the spirit world.
Charles felt something. But then the old shaman got scared, he acted scared as if I was gonna take his precious religion. And maybe do something really bad with it. Damn right I was, and cuttin the heads off chickens and sacrificing neighborhood cats wasn't going to get me where I wanted to go. Damballah would want more, if there was a Damballah. John didn't know anything about the sacrifice, he didn't have to. By the time I had the ceremony down, I'm just gonna change the offering. That's what I thought, I remember smiling at that and I asked for one thing. To see this Damballah, to know whether he, she, it was real. Or am I wasting my time with this gri gri.
The old shamen didn't have to know. That was a line he obviously didn't want to cross. I remember, I caught the bitch in the old warehouse after chasing her through the storage room under the exposed pipes. She had screamed but there had been no one to hear her. I hurried, I remember that I hurried. No telling who might come along I thought. Someone might come along and find me and screw the whole thing up. I tied the woman up and gagged her, she'd been quick but that hadn't been my concern. I used my old knife, my favorite knife, the one that I lost years later in the Barclay's apartment.
The woman had been gagged, she had barely made a sound but she sure had tried to scream when she saw my knife. Glistening even here, even in the gloom of the basement, she kicked at the ropes holding her fast, so frantic. I couldn't believe how exciting it was. How wonderful. The girl had kicked at the ropes, a heartwarming sight for Charles. All tied up, no place to go.
Charles took his time pouring the salt. Making everything just right in a perfect circle. Her eyes were dry with tears, all red and puffy.
I had taken my time bringing my knife up to her throat. The gri gri book said that fear was the key. The wild eyed look of terror. That was the grease that made the engine run. Besides, it was fun. I brought my knife to her neck, I muttered the words. The call for a personal consonantation, and deep down I hadn't believed that anything would happen. I had been about to chuck the whole routine as bullshit.
I touched the girl's neck with the knife. It was like drawing with a fine point pen. I traced a line from ear to ear as prescribed. Letting the ol' viral juices flow and then down to cover her body with the powerful symbols. The building started to shake.
It had seemed to Charles then, that the whole building started to vibrate. He stood up and dropped the knife. The light 150 watt bulbs running along the ceiling had begun to fade slowly as if they had been tied to some romantic dimmer. The blood had started to spread to the floor, to Charles Lee Ray's feet. Then a cloud, a black cloud had formed above her. Now ain't that something.
Then, then there had been something in the cloud, it had… it had a shape. But it had been difficult to make out that shape because a black arm-like thing had come through with three curved fingers. Or were they tentacles? Then another, and another, and another, and the smell. Charles remembered opening his mouth and gulping at the air. He would have to be crazy to use his nostrils. A body, black like obsidian, wet, covered with some slick oily liquid. It lives in some pool, a pool of the damned at the end of the universe. Damballa the soul catcher, the eater of spirits, a head had emerged, a soup bowl of eyes with an opening of teeth. Sharp and bloody teeth. It looked like something that would crawl out of hell.
At that point I remembered falling down onto the red pool. I hadn't even noticed what I'd fallen into.
"Okay"
I had said. I'm okay, I can deal with this. After all, I called it, didn't I? I summoned the damn thing and now it's here. And then it looked at me. Briefly but directly. I could feel all of its eyes on me. It opened its mouth and moaned, a loud moan, a loud scream, a loud cry. Like thousands of life forms all screaming at one. Then it wrapped its tentacles around the woman and disappeared back into the portal bringing her with it. I had never seen more fear in someone's eyes since Damballa dragged that woman to its world, its dimension. The cloud dissolved. And the lightning stopped. The naked light bulbs turned back on and all that was left in the pool of blood was a kneeling Charles and the chair he had tied the woman to.
Charles Lee Ray had been scared before in his life, but nothing, not a single thing could scare him more than seeing that thing. Seeing Damballa.