The Talon Family
The Kiss of the Witch Doctor
February
Draft_2
By: Chase L. Currie
Michael checked his phone sending a short but sweet text to
Sesily and then slipped it back into his pocket.
Helbis rose an eyebrow as they walked
down the road but didn’t say a word. “Sorry,” he said.
“As
long as your head is in the game,” She told him. “I don’t care.”
“It
is,” he said.
“Better
be,” she said with a sly grin.
“Do you
like her?” Michael asked looking up at the darkening sky with a sweet
foreshadowing of rain. The moisture hung in the air like a thick cloud, and they could smell it where ever they went. It would be nice to feel the
rain. It would be nice for them but not so much for Gabriel. Turning invisible
would do her no good in the rain because she would be easy to see. Hopefully,
they handle the mission before the rain started to paint the world.
Gabriel and Raphael went to “talk”
to the Voodoo Kids, while they got the mission to find this Chelsea Mays.
They
looked her up, and the only address was a
few blocks away. It seems to be her mother’s house; her father was nowhere to
be found. It was where they were heading now, hopefully talking to her mother
would be easy.
“I do,”
Helbis said.
Michael
smiled and said, “Good. I think I really love her.”
Helbis
bite back a grimace but keep her mouth shut.
“What?”
“Nothing,”
she said.
“Come
on tell me,” Michael pushed her.
“You
are young,” she said.
“Not
that young.”
“But young
never the less,” she said, “and you should fall madly in love but just be ready
if it doesn’t work out. I hope it does, I also know that is very rare for those things to work out in the long run.”
“So,
you don’t want it to work out?”
“That
is not at all what I said,” she pointed at him with a flat stare. “I’m saying
enjoy it, but if it ends, it is alright.”
“Sure,”
he said rolling his eyes.
“Come
on,” she hissed back playfully, “you asked me.”
“I did,
I know.” It was the number one rule of the family if you asked someone for
their blunt opinion you got it and if you didn’t want it then don’t ask.
Michael asked, and he had to accept Helbis’s opinion, even if didn’t like it.
Helbis glanced down at her phone stopping in
front a small house. A single light burns in the window from a small TV, they
walked up to the door and knocked. “Hopefully,” said looking back at Michael as
the rain started to dance behind them, “this will be easy.”
A
mid-age woman opens the door staring hard at them both keeping one hand hidden
behind the door; more than likely it with a firearm,
but Helbis didn’t mind. In this
neighborhood having a weapon was the best way to be safe. “What do you want?”
She hissed at them.
Helbis
smiled big and said, “Hello, I am Helbis Talon, and this is my little brother,
Michael.” Mrs. Mays raised an eyebrow
looking back and forth at them both but said nothing about the physical
differences. “Are the mother of Chelsea Mays?”
“Oh
god,” the woman cried, “what happens to
her? Is she dead?”
“No
ma’am, I don’t believe so,” Helbis said. “May we come in?”
“Are
you the cops?” She asked them.
“No,
ma’am,” Michael said, “but we are with
the government.”
“Like
F.B.I?”
“Something
like that, ma’am,” Helbis smiled again.
Mrs.
Mays studies them for a quick moment then slip her pistol into her bathrobe and
open the door all the way. She stepped out of the way as they both enter making
sure she was behind them. They glanced around the short hallway seeing family
pictures eyeing ones of the young teenagers.
“So,
what is going on with Chelsea?” Mrs. Mays asked.
“We
need to find her,” Michael said following his sister into the living room.
“Why?”
Mrs. Mays asked.
“We
believe she was the first person to have the Blue Kiss,” Helbis told her
turning around to face her.
“That
can’t be the case,” Mrs. Mays told them, “then she would be dead, right?”
“There
might not be a case,” Helbis said.
“No,
no,” Mrs. Mays said sitting down in the chair like some thought had exploded
into her mind.
“Ma’am?”
Helbis asked looking over at Michael.
“She
rushed in a week or so ago, grabbing something, and crying,” Mrs. Mays said.
“She won’t look at me and won’t tell me anything other than she was staying
with Maggie Streets for a while.” She started to cry. “What if she has it? What
if she died over there?”
“I
doubted it, ma’am,” Michael said. “I’m sure someone would have called you.”
Helbis
nodded at the needles on the small table beside the chair. There was a couple
of them, and one even had black drugs in
it. Mrs. Mays looked like a well put together woman, but she was a hardcore
addict.
“Michael
do you know what day it is?” Helbis asked.
“No,”
he shook his head wondering where she was going with the question.
“What
about you, Mrs. Mays?” Helbis asked. “You know what day it is?”
Mrs.
Mays stopped the tears thinking for a moment, also wanting to know why she
asked the silly question now and said, “Monday.”
“Right,
Monday,” Helbis nodded, but it wasn’t anywhere close to Monday. It was late
Thursday night which told them both Mrs. Mays here was high or coming down from
a high. Chelsea could be god knows where by now, and this woman would have no idea.
Michael
crossed his arms as Helbis asked, “When did Chelsea come in?”
“Friday
night,” Mrs. Mays said.
“Ah,
right,” she said nodding over to Michael to go
check upstairs to find the girl’s room.
He slowly backed away as Mrs. Mays
asked, “Who are you people again and why are you here?”
He made it upstairs looking around at the three-bedrooms slowly opening their doors.
The one cover in a mess was his pick for the teenager, it reminded him of
Gabriel’s room. He stepped in over the mess seeing someone had picked clothes
fasted. He stood for a moment in the space which wasn’t his and wished he was
somewhere else. He could feel this girl moving around the room like a ghost. It
was wrong to be here without permission, but it was a part of the job.
He walked over to the small writing
desk finding a letter sitting on top and out in the open with the word ‘Mom’
went on it. He opens slowly knowing the words were not for him, but for the
drugged-out mother down below. The poor girl grew up in this life and now, he
was reading a letter, a farewell letter, to her dying mother. He wished he was
someone else at this moment.
Michael stepped out on the pouch
sighing and watching the rain cool the night off. He loved the rain, always had
since he was a child. He and his mother would
sit outside watching the rain and lightning for hours until he fell asleep. The
rain always reminded him of his mother, and he grins
a little at it.
Helbis
came up beside him and said, “Got an address to where Chelsea friend lives.”
“That
is good,” Michael said handing his sister the letter. “Not sure what we are
going to find there.”
She
took the paper opening to read as he did his best to do the same. He had a hard
time making out many of the words not because the handwriting was awful but because his mind was plagued with dyslexia making most words seem
like magical ruins too him. He hated not being able to read and was trying to
overcome it, but it was something which would stay with him for the rest of his
life, much like his shadow.
“This
is not good,” Helbis said still reading.
“What
are you getting out of it?” He asked wanting to make sure he got the same
thing.
“She
says her friend,” Helbis explained, “Maggie, summon the Devil and made a deal
with him. The Devil is where the sickness is coming from, and she is sick but
won’t be coming home. She knows she is going to die and is going to try to set
everything right.”
“Yeah,
I saw the Devil thing too,” Michael said. “Magic?”
“I
believe so,” she said. “She kept saying something about voodoo. From what I
know, which isn’t a lot, the Devil does play a role in voodoo.”
Michael
glanced over at her with a risen eyebrow. “You think it’s the real Devil? Should
we get a hold of the Twelve?”
“I
don’t believe it’s the real Devil,” Helbis said pulling her phone out and
texting Gabriel to see how things were going. “But it’s someone or something
powerful.”
“I hate
fighting demons,” Michael sighed. “They always try to get into your head.”
“Gabriel
is on the way to pick us up.”
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