“Lisa—”
“Look, I get it. You assumed something about me, even though it wasn’t true. I’m so sick of people assuming shit about me as opposed to getting to know me. But, there’s nothing I can do about that. So, just help me get the hell out of here.”
“We can’t go anywhere yet.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because usually when I get inside of people, it’s not as crowded as it is, or there’s nothing there at all. My family still has some work to do.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Just wait it out. This is a first for me too. I don’t think there’s nothing else these things can do besides guard you to keep you from getting out.”
“They won’t attack me, will they?”
“If my family doesn’t handle business, they’ll kill you.”
“What?” she screamed.
“Not right now. It’ll take a few days.”
“Peresh!”
“Do you want me to be real with you, or do you want me to be honest?”
She kissed her teeth, slapping her arms at her sides.
On the outside, Robyn rubbed her daughter’s forehead with Lisa’s head in her lap, trying her best to keep her daughter’s energy clean.
Cinderella doused holy oil after every incantation from her children. She took her eyes over to Moses and Pharaoh who had long found the burned circle on the earth that hosted multiple symbols. The moment the earth cracked and smoked, they knew they had to act quickly.
“Son, have you changed Nay’s ring too?” Pharaoh asked, just to make the situation seem less dramatic, and to help pass the time.
“Oh, umm… Yeah. But, don’t judge me, daddy. I feel a lot of judgement coming off of you.”
“I had cold feet once upon a time too.”
The ground shook, causing the duo to jump back only a little.
“Your mama was the sweetest, most beautiful thing I could ever imagine. But, when that moment came where I knew I was meeting her at the altar, I wondered if I was good enough.”
“You?”
The ground shook a little harder just before a long, shadowy hand reached out of it.
Moses flung his wrist as if he had a whip in his hand. “Get your ass back down there!”
“Yup,” Pharaoh continued. He peered over his shoulder at his convulsing daughter, at how much a scared Robyn was holding her. “And then we had kids. You think you and Nay are going to bring me some grandkids?”
“Yes, sir!” A creature shot out of the ground, only for Moses to open his hand to it, to send it back down below. “Beautiful, weird little shifters with the gifts of magic. I want two sets of twins.”
“Come on, Lisa,” Fairest whispered.
Inside her body, the shadowy clouds of beings closed in on her and Peresh. They inched closer to one another, back to back.
“What the hell is going on?” Annalissa asked Peresh.
“I-I don’t know,” he nervously admitted. “I’m not usually ever here around this part.”
“Daddy, they’re coming up faster!” Moses screamed. Golden beams shot out of both his palms to keep the clan of demons beneath the surface.
Pharaoh’s own rays were pouring out of his eyes and hands to cast off the darkness. “What time is it?” he shouted to no one in particular.
Instead of looking at his watch, Akiel continued to recite his verse from the Holy Bible as he took his eyes up to the skies. A red lining was already beginning to grace the moon.
“Peresh?” Lisa’s voice trembled as the air grew thicker and hotter. Both their bodies were drenched with sweat. It was becoming harder and harder to breathe. She intertwined his fingers with hers, with her back pressing into his more intensely. The shadows were right at the edges of their faces. “Do you remember how we created our dreamland?”
“Yeah?” He responded strongly.
“Do you think we can recreate that?”
“Right now, Annalissa? Seriously? I knew you Pharaohs were crazy, but—”
“Stop talking about my last name!” The moment she shouted, a blue hue shot out of her mouth, sending the shadow in front of her face cowering away with a squeal.
“What the hell just happened?”
“I-I-I don’t know.”
“Do it again.”
“Aaaah!” she hollered. With a heaving chest, she linked her arms with Peresh’s, continuing to scream at the top of her lungs like a mad woman.
Robyn held her daughter the moment her chest shot up into the air. “Come on, baby,” she whispered. “No matter, what I’m proud of you. You hear me? I am proud of you. You fight, Lisa. Fight the hardest you’ve ever fought and come home.”
“I cast you out!” Cinderella screamed. “All of you rotten motherfuckers! You come out of that girl right now, and go back to hell where you belong! Peresh! If you can hear your mama, you bring her out of there, right now!”
Peresh gasped, collapsing onto the grass with a nosebleed. Akiel rushed to his brother, tapping his cheek to see if he was alright. “Keep going,” Peresh barely said with a hoarse voice. “Keep going, she’s almost there.”
“In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—”
Annalisa screamed aloud; her back rising from her mother’s lap. The blue hue and black smoke coming out of her mouth in long, thick streams seemed never-ending.
“David!” Robyn called to her husband. “Put them back where they came from!”
With one hand stretched in his wife’s direction and the other toward the circle, Moses mimicked his father as if their soft palms were funnels to lead the beings below the surface.
“Close the gate!” Fairest screamed to Akiel. “We need to close the gate! The moon!”
He looked away from faint Peresh to see that over half the moon was covered in red. He crawled over to his sister’s notes for the incantation to close the gate, but no matter what he’d said or how loud or hard he’d said it, it wasn’t enough.
“Baby!” Pharaoh beckoned his wife. “Close this goddamn thing! I believe you can do this!”
“I-I need a sacrifice—”
“Close the goddamn gate, Robyn Pharaoh!”
“If I give in to the darkness—”
Lisa fell against her mother’s lap with her eyes now full of blue electric volts. “Mama,” she weakly called. “Please. Help me. Help me over to Daddy and Mo.”
“Baby, you—”
“Have no more excuses. And even if I don’t get to do this, at least I’ve tried.”
Tears gathered in Robyn’s eyes. She and Fairest helped to lift Lisa upon her feet as Cinderella stormed over to Kirko and Dossier. She slapped his cheek so hard that a packet of blood flew out of his mouth. She then roughly grabbed his jaws to force him to witness the three women struggling to make it to the Pharaoh men. “Look,” she howled. “If they don’t close this damn gate, it’ll be your fault that this world falls, boy. And let me tell ya’… You and all your false worshipers will be hunted one by one no matter the outcome, you foolish, stupid little fucker!”
Annalissa was weak by the time Robyn and Fairest gently rested her at the edge of the circle. She didn’t want to go on. She at least had to try. She moussed her locs over her shoulder, listening to the psychotic but wise Jovan Sun inside her thoughts.
“Take care of yourself. Take care of you… even if you feel you’ve failed.”
“This is for me,” she weakly mumbled.
“…we are to always remain in tune with one’s self… Who are you?”
“I am Annalissa Pharaoh.”
“What, honey?” Robyn asked her. “Did you say something?”
“You are not a lost cause—”
“We’re done here.” Lisa sucked in a long, hard breath, pulling in winds up to twenty miles per hour, then stretched out her hand over the open circle in the ground. “I am not useless,” she said aloud, shaking her head as the winds seemed to bat at the open flames. “I am not a weakl
ing. And I am not in-fucking-competent.” Her free hand rose to cover the hole, with bits of water from the bayou and dirt falling into it. “You will not pass, you will not win. You will all remain beneath me as long as I breathe.”
Thunder cracked in the darkening skies, yet the moon was almost fully covered in red.
Lisa connected her palms, finally, successfully closing a portal that could’ve been a catastrophe for the masses. Her final act was to collapse.
“Lisa!” her family screamed in horror in unison.
She was unresponsive.
“Lisa?” Peresh called her, gently caressing her cheek. He couldn’t get inside her thoughts or her dream, or her unconscious state. Frightfully, he took his eyes to each individual family member, fearing the worst.
Chapter
Twelve
Lisa opened her eyes to her Tyler the Creator poster on her bedroom wall, just above her old favorite skateboard. She was well-rested but felt as if a few more minutes of sleep couldn’t hurt. She lay on her old bed for what seemed like forever until she heard her mother tell her brother over the phone that no one would be late to his 6PM ceremony. Lisa cracked a small smile, knowing that the family had to arrive at the venue by four, just to make her brother shut up for a change.
Finally, she swung her feet over the side of her bed, loving the feel of the warm floorboards against her naked skin. She stretched, and spent an hour meditating before a nice, long steaming hot shower. It was the little things she cherished more than ever. Not seeing Peresh in her dreams made her feel a little forgotten, but she had to remember that there was a thing such as free will. If Peresh backed off after the events that had taken place, that was his decision, and she could do nothing about it.
After her shower, Lisa pulled a half soft yellow, half lavender LSU tank top over her head, then a pair of cut-off blue jean shorts. She tied her locs in a knot as she jogged down the steps, hoping to get a word in with her father about letting her go back the family’s home. Halfway down, she caught the distant sound of voices. Both were familiar to her, but her father’s laughter seemed alien.
“So, he says to me, ‘Take it off! I don’t know what you’ve done, but it’s ruining my life! I can get my johnson up, but I can’t get these women off me!’ He literally had his piece in his hand.”
Pharaoh burst into a wall-shaking laugh that made his daughter stop dead in her tracks. “They never listen. When I was your age, I wondered if I should’ve warned people at all. You warn ‘em, they still go for what their money is worth. You don’t warn ‘em, same thing. The only difference is the look they give you and the crooked walk they take on their way away from you.”
“It doesn’t matter at all.”
“Yeah, but some things do matter. Your daddy should’ve told you that. I know mine didn’t. I had to learn the hard way.”
There was a brief moment of silence as Lisa used soft, quick feet to make her way to her father’s leir.
“I know, Mr. Pharaoh. I just learned that lesson with all my insomnia, the grumble in my belly from lack of appetite and food, and from the way I just zone out when I’m supposed to be working. I can’t think about nothin’ else, I can’t sleep, I can’t focus, and all the while, I feel so damn stupid.”
“So, what? You want me to give you some sleeping powder?”
“No.” He laughed. “I want you to give me your blessing to see Lisa. It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t do it by the books. I’m no blue-collar joe, but I’m also not a wretched individual despite my political and cultural practices. Mr. Pharaoh, I just need to see her again. At least just once. The right way.”
“Is that a wish?” Pharaoh mocked him. “I’m no genie, son.”
“No, sir. That’s an honest request from someone trying to be an honest man.”
“What are you willing to do if I give you my blessing?”
“Treat her right. If given the one chance—just one—I’d show her who I can be; who I’m learning to be. Just one shot. That’s it.”
“How about apologizing for being an asshole?” Lisa turned the corner with her arms folded, viewing her father on his makeshift throne and Peresh seated on a stool across from him with his ankle crossed over the opposite knee.
“That too,” Peresh mumbled in awe.
“Then, let me hear it. Apologize.”
“You too, for being so stubborn.”
She sighed. Though she hadn’t touched liquor in almost two weeks, she was itching for a drink for a bit of courage. “Peresh, I’m sorry for being so stubborn and not considering how you felt… even though you were still an asshole.”
“Good. And I’m sorry for pretending to be a guy that I wasn’t. I mean… honestly…Who I showed you—not the black part— but the sweet side was who I really wanted to be on the outside. Lisa, I don’t have any excuses for you. I’ve been in love with for damn near seven years and I didn’t tell you. We can go on for hours, tossing this ball back and forth, but I’ll settle on the fact that I’m sorry, and I love you.”
“Love?” Pharaoh asked. “Love?”
“Daddy, can you give us a minute?” Lisa politely asked.
“Hell no. This is my lair. What do you mean you’re in love with my daughter?”
“Daddy!”
“Say what you have to say, but I’m not getting off this chair.”
Lisa slid her hand down her face. “Can we start over?”
Peresh stood from his stool, pulling the ends of his pressed black button-up. Then, he approached Lisa with a smirk until he closed the space. “Hello, beautiful. My name is Peresh Northgate of the Northgate Gypsy demon-hunters. I was a bit intrigued by your beauty. Do you mind if I get your name?”
Lisa blushed, extending her hand. “My name is Annalissa Pharaoh of the NOLA Pharaoh clan. I’m a brat who loves pomegranates, crawfish and all the Blues music I can get at a time. I also own a beauty and braiding shop not too far from here. You should stop by sometime.”
Peresh accepted her hand, but pulled her into him to seal their lips.
“Boy,” Pharaoh interrupted them. “Just because I like you, it doesn’t mean I want your lips on my princess. Back the hell up. Speaking of lips.”
Lisa rolled her eyes, pulling Peresh out of the lair by the hand.
“Where are we going?” he asked, almost getting lost in the corridors with as many as they turned into.
She led him up four flights of winding stairs until she finally reached a door and spun around on her heels. “You said you loved me, right?”
“Yes.”
“Well, you know how you were uneasy about telling me about you being a Gypsy?”
“Yeah?” He raised a single brow.
“Umm… I’m about to take you into a place not many people get to see. It’s actually an honor. I just ask that you remember you love me, Peresh.”
“Okay.”
Without using her hands, the door opened for her. Peresh could hear moans and pleas for help before he placed a single foot over the threshold. And as soon as he had, the door slammed by itself behind him.
“What the hell is this place?” he asked as a shiver crawled up his spine from how cold it was.
“Daddy’s trophy room.”
Peresh looked at all the empty cages, treasure chests, mason jars with body parts in them, and wondered what she meant by trophy room. He almost bumped into her when she stopped at a cage that was being occupied.
“Here we are.”
Dossier, as naked as the day he arrived in this world, sat on his bare ass against the dusty floorboards.
“Get up, Dossier,” Lisa instructed him.
He rose against his will against the bars of his cage.
Lisa cut the stitches off his lips and removed the cotton that was stuffed inside his mouth. “You can eat now.”
All he could do was moan without his tongue. Peresh leaned a little closer in the dimly lit room to see that the poor man was without eyes. Cotton and gauze covered his sockets.
<
br /> With that said, Lisa washed her hands in an old sink in the corner of the room. “The spirits,” she admitted. “You’re hearing the spirits of the people who betrayed our family. They’re stuck here. They’re daddy’s trophies.”
Peresh nodded as he turned to the door.
“If you want to leave me, and you have no plans of sticking around, Peresh, I advise you to leave now.” She shook her hands dry as she approached him in the middle of the vast attic. “I’m not just Annalissa Pharaoh. I’m the Voodoo Princess. I accept that.”
Peresh smirked and said, “Don’t you need a date for your brother’s wedding, little lady? If your boyfriend doesn’t mind, I’d like to escort you.”
“Well, I don’t know.”
“Maybe you should ask him.”
“Good idea.” She curled her arms around his neck with a grin. “Umm, Peresh, it’s a guy who’s devilishly handsome, covered in tattoos, standing my face. He wants to escort me to my brother’s wedding in a bit. Do you mind if he takes me?”
“Gee, I don’t know. I mean, are you attracted to him, even though he looks like a whole maniac?”
“Nope. I think he’s a looker.”
“As long as he treats you right, I don’t mind.”
“Do you… think he’ll want to fuck me in front of my ex-boyfriend who almost caused a whole apocalypse?”
“You hadn’t said shit but a word. But what about someone hearing y’all?”
“Noise spell. No one will be able to hear a thing.” Lisa ripped his shirt open, pushing Peresh’s back against the bars of Dossier’s cage.
“You’re so bad.”
“I am.”
“Damn, I just bagged the fucking Voodoo Princess. Do you know how fortunate I am?”
She smiled, pecking his lips. “I’ve waited a while to hear someone say that to me, but I’m lucky to have someone who knows the real me, not just my name.”
“Dido.” He grabbed the back of her head, kissing her passionately.
“Let’s hurry this along so that we won’t be late for my pissy brother’s wedding.”
“Just treat me like it’s our honeymoon.”
Complete and petty, Lisa was more than happy to give herself to someone who understood. Going through a trial or two didn’t hurt the fact that what she knew she had was real. And if somehow she was still stuck inside some dreamland, she wouldn’t have minded it being anywhere else than with Peresh Northgate, the lucky Gypsy Dreamwalker. Maybe— just maybe—this was the new dreamland they created together.
Claiming the Voodoo Princess Page 7
