Oppressed (30 page)

My feet stopped moving and I found
myself surrounded by an alcove of low oak trees. Wild roots and
tiny yellow flowers grew of out of the moist earth while the stench
of swamp decay lingered in the air. In the distance I could hear
the faint rhythm of drums as they wildly beat into the
night.

“
I’m here,” I said
cautiously. “How can I help you? Are you in trouble? Are you stuck
on this side? I can help you?”

The voice laughed wickedly and against
my will I fell to my knees and started to wildly convulse and foam
at the mouth.

“
They whipped me, shot me, and
then set me on fire!” The voice lamented. “Now, I want my
revenge!”

“
I’m sorry,” I croaked. “I
want to help. I can help set you free.” Vile foam emerged from my
mouth and caused me to vomit up a thick glob of congealed blood.
The smell of burnt flesh filled the air and I immediately placed my
hand over my nose in abhorrence.

“
I don’t want your help!”
the voice hissed. “I want you to feel my pain and then you will
become me!”

The apparition appeared before me in a
cloud of hazy red smoke. She had once been beautiful but now her
brown skin was charred and she was dressed in a tattered brown
dress. Violent raindrops slashed at her body and her cat-like eyes
were glowing an odd shade of fuzzy yellow. A large gaping hole
rested on the left side of her chest and oozed a heavy stream of
black blood. She turned around and exposed multiple lash marks.
“Look. I want you to take it all!”

Damn. I knew exactly what this
was. She was the product of an
envoi mort trick
or sending of the evil dead. If they
wanted, Voodoo Kings and Queens were capable of sending a restless
dead person’s spirit against their target. Once called upon the
spirit inhabited the body of the target and the target began to
transform into the dead person and experience the same pains they
had upon their death. These symptoms would continue until the
target eventually dropped dead and died from the same affliction as
the spirit, or until the spirit was removed from the target’s body.
Judging by the looks of it this girl had died a pretty gruesome
death and there was no way I wanted to experience her
pain.

“
Who sent you?” I asked.
“What’s your name?” I tried to reason with her.

She limped closer and closer to me and
I tried to get up but with every move I was forced back down until
I lay flat on my back.

“
Nobody cares what my name is!
Can’t you see? Nobody cares at all so I’ve come. I’ve come to wreak
havoc because that’s all I have left. Death and destruction are the
only solutions. I loved him but
he
never loved me back! Why didn’t he love me? And
why did they have to kill me?”

“
No,” I pleaded. “No
they’re not. Please tell me your name.”

“
I am Sophie. Sophie I
am.” She laughed wickedly before leaning down and parting my mouth
with her mud-caked hands.

I attempted to move but my body was
frozen, limp and terribly useless. No words came out when I tried
to speak, only an endless stream of yellow vomit. With a swift and
unexpected move the apparition crawled into my throat and forced me
to swallow her.

I stood up and found myself thrusting
from one end of the alcove to the other. My chest started to madly
ache and a veil of lunacy descended upon me. Before my very eyes I
saw my body transform into hers. All of her scars disappeared and
her skin was soft and supple again. I touched my face, her face and
found it to be incredibly smooth and polished.

I heard the crack of a whip and my
blood ran cold. I felt the pain of an agonizing lash on my back and
bitter tears of agony poured out of my eyes. An oak branch extended
itself from a nearby tree and wrapped its claws around my
neck.

“
Sophie. I am Sophie!” I
madly wailed, as the branch lifted me up off of the ground and
dangled me in mid-air. A small flame ignited underneath my feet and
the first heat of the fire started to crawl up my legs. I looked at
the gray sky and let out a scream as I smelled my flesh start to
burn and my body started to violently shake. “I am
Sophie!”

The flames rose higher and higher. I tried
to think of a spirit that would help me but Sophie’s thoughts were
overpowering mine. Although she had practiced Voodoo, her
connection with the spirits wasn’t as strong as mine. I knew that
she had been a worker on this plantation, not a slave but a free
woman of color and this is what had happened to her. They had
feared her and had murdered her.

I looked up, closed my eyes. I could
hear Papa Ghede’s voice beckoning me from the other side but Sophie
didn’t want me to die. Whoever was controlling her was only
beginning their game. They were only toying with me. The real game
was just about to begin.

Sophie recalled a name. “Louis!” I
screamed. “Louis! I’m alive! Help me!”

I heard a voice. “Jump! Jump! I’ll
catch you!” hollered the voice. “Do it quick.”

I opened my eyes and looked down. I
saw a handsome young man standing below. His raggedy brown shirt
was drenched and his filthy feet were bare.

A powder was thrown into my eyes and
the branch loosened its grip. I closed my eyes again and jumped
down. He caught me but I was still Sophie.

Chapter Thirty

Lovesick Puppy

Darkwood
Plantation

A few miles outside of New
Orleans, 1853

“
Sophie?” he
asked.

I nodded. “I’m alive, Louis. I’m
alive!”

Louis’ deep eyes widened in shock and
then without warning he pulled me close. Tears streamed down his
face and I could feel his heart beat wildly. “Sophie. Sophie,” he
muttered. “I love you. I love you. I thought you left me. I thought
you didn’t love me. You’re my everything, Sophie,” he
whispered.

“
No, Louis. I love you. Only
you. I came back, didn’t I? I’m here and I’m not going
anywhere.”

I could feel that Sophie was lying. She
didn’t love Louis. She thought he was a naïve, lovesick puppy and
believed that she was too good for him. She had loved someone else
but now she despised him. I wanted to overpower her and tell Louis
the truth but whoever was controlling her had full power over me
and I was nothing but a helpless avatar.

I pulled Louis close and kissed him
furiously and passionately. As his energy blended with mine I could
feel his goodness and warmth. It was familiar. All so familiar.
When I pulled back I saw that his eyes were glazed over as if he
had been placed in hypnotic trance. He was under Sophie’s control
now. Within me Cecile was fighting and struggling to drive out
Sophie but the battle seemed hopeless.

“
Sophie, I’d do anything to make
you happy. Anything,” Louis said, as he covered me in a storm of
kisses.

“
We can be together
forever, Louis. Forever and forever. Do you want to be together
forever?”

“
Yes,” he nodded
furiously. His eyes were growing foggier by the second and Sophie
knew that it was the perfect time.

I started to run away from the alcove
of trees and towards the house. “Come with me, Louis! Come with me
and we can be together forever.”

Louis started to run after me and I
giggled at his stupidity.

“
Louis, where are you going?” I
heard his Maman’s voice call him. “They’ll kill you!”

“
Sophie, I can’t go to the main
house. They’ll kill me,” he said, parroting his Maman.

I stopped. When he caught up with me I
kissed him savagely. “Louis do you love me?” My voice was
threatening. Inside, Cecile wanted to scream.

“
Yes,” he said. All of his
clarity had been sucked out and he was a weak child again. He was
mine to manipulate and use. He was a hungry little puppy looking
for affection and warmth. He was putty in my hands.

I looked at his Maman and saw that she
had fallen to the ground and was trying to crawl towards us.
Whoever was controlling me had influence over her as
well.

“
Then prove it. Be a man and
forget your Maman for once.” I ran away from him and made a mad
dash towards the side of the house. With cat-like reflexes I
crawled up the side of the house and into the familiar window.
Louis was right behind me.

A row of black candles lit up the
large room and a ghastly humming filled the air. It reeked of
death, spider webs, licorice root, and chicory root. It was the
smell of Confusion Oil.

Lucus lay on the bed;
sweat dripped from
his forehead and black blood fell from his nose. Edmond sat on a
plush satin chair in the corner of the room and slowly drank
whiskey from a heavy crystal glass. His eyes gleamed and he smiled
when he saw me and Louis climb through the window. Emilie stood
over Lucus and watched him holler in agony. Her blue eyes filled
with delight at his every scream.

What was going on? I was a pitiful
prisoner, unable to say the words I wanted to say. Scream the
screams I wanted to scream. I wanted to ask Emilie why she was
doing this.

Emilie glanced at me. “I’ve been sitting
down for far too long, sister; now it’s my turn to shine and you
need to be punished for your crimes.” She glanced at Edmond. A
wicked grin danced on her lips. “I told you I wouldn’t disappoint
you. After this sacrifice Cecile’s all yours. To have, hold, and
oppress for eternity.”

“
Fascinating. Absolutely
fascinating.” Edmond’s voice was low and approving just as it had
been when he had first undressed me. Cecile wanted to vomit but as
Sophie I was on a mission. He shot Emilie a look. “At least you
savages are good for something.”

“
Sweet
Cecile, are you in there?” he asked,
as he looked at me. “I want to watch while you have my dear cousin
murdered. Sacrifice him so we can be together forever. That is what
you want, isn’t it?”

Against my will I nodded.

“
Excellent. I want to
watch as life is taken from him. I despise him with every ounce of
my being. I don’t understand what you see in him.” He scoffed in
disapproval.

I glanced at Louis. His eyes were
starting to clear and it seemed as if he was snapping out of his
trance, but Emilie wasn’t going to let that happen. She passed
Confusion Oil over his neck and his eyes glazed over
again.

I looked at Lucus and instead if feeling
love I felt humiliation and anger. As Sophie, I recalled how much I
had loved him. How much I had pursued him and how one day he had
given in and kissed me while he had been drunk. And how the next
day I had offered myself to him only to be refused and told that he
didn’t feel the same way about me. Sure I had fooled around with
Louis because I found his child-like devotion endearing, but Lucus
was the one I really wanted. Not some lowly slave. Lucus was the
challenge. He was the one who could have pulled me out of my
miserable position.

Alas, it hadn’t worked out that way.
Madame LaPlante had found out about my little obsession and had me
whipped, which annoyed me to no end. I had called upon Sousson
Pannan to help me defend myself, which had infuriated the drivers.
In fear and anger they had killed me and at the age of seventeen my
life had been cut short. Now, I wanted Lucus to suffer and die a
slow and agonizing death. I bent over and kissed him, all the while
staring at puppy dog Louis.

“
Sophie!” Louis
screamed.

I gave him a grin and kept on kissing
Lucus.

Soon enough, Louis climbed on top of
Lucus and started to punch him in blind vengeance and mindless
anger. Every punch gave me a strange sense of justice. “You have
everything! Why can’t you leave her alone?” Louis
shouted.

I looked at Emilie and Edmond. Their
cold faces were smug with approval as they looked upon the scene in
pleasure.

I could feel Cecile trying to push me
aside but I wasn’t going to let her win either. I wanted her to
watch him die. I wanted her to watch as the blood oozed from his
nose and mouth and flooded the crisp white sheets. Why did he love
her anyways? What was so special about her?

Lucus struggled against Louis but I
could see that he was losing the battle and would be gone
soon.

“
I want Cecile to watch. I
watch to watch Cecile’s expression as he dies,” ordered
Edmond.

Emilie nodded.

I coughed and watched as my body
transformed into my own again. Sophie’s black spirit slowly exited
my mouth and entered into the glass jar which was held by
Emilie.

“
Lucus, no!” I rushed to his
side but it was too late. He was already dead. My snobs were loud
and violent but Emilie and Edmond only laughed at my despair so I
abruptly stopped unwilling to give them anymore
satisfaction.

Louis stumbled off of Lucus and walked
around the room in what appeared to be a drunken stupor. My heart
ached for him, as he had been used as an unwilling puppet to carry
out this unnecessary massacre. His mouth was starting to foam and I
could tell that he was about to die as well. After all, the weapon
needed to be destroyed.