He wore a large, tatty brown old top hat with an impressively large white ostrich feather stuck within it and some cat teeth bones attached to it around the rim. Under the impressive hat he wore a tight-fitting, black cloth to presumably control his unruly dreadlocks which dangling down precariously to his lower arms and contained an assortment of various vibrantly colourful ribbons. These red, yellow and green ribbons where tied into knots on every dreadlock with loving care and obviously expressed his fondness for Caribbean culture. He also wore some dirty old brown trousers that where barley held up by a worn down leather belt and degraded suspenders that had long since passed there accustomed usage. All this was pleasantly accommodated by his old tatty brown boots, dirty yellow and white stained vest and his tightly fitting old purple waistcoat which was fully buttoned up. He had a small but strange wooden statue neckless around his neck which itself was covered in feathers, albeit smaller and less impressive than the large one that was incorporated within his hat. He also had an impressive assortment of voodoo tattoos that went along both his arms in their entirety and only ended around his neckline.
He then lit himself up a large self-created cigarette that radiated the smell of potent weed which reverberated throughout the boxcar and seeped out into the surrounding atmosphere outside. His face was handsome but also well-worn and he appeared to be in his mid-thirties’ to mid-forties’ but with the restricted view both detectives could not be sure. Both knew that African American males sometimes appeared to be a lot younger than what they actually where and both suspected that he was probably not as young as he appeared to be. The struggling detectives then both lifted themselves up again to the underside of the boxcar and leaned in closer in order to better observe the environment and as they heard the Voodoo Doctor finally ask Poppy a question in his distinctively deep Jamaican accent “So my esteemed associate tells me you got some ‘ladies problems’ downstairs?”
Poppy instantly replied because she was eager to end this unwanted consultation as soon as possible because she felt immensely uncomfortable as the Voodoo Doctor looked at her with hunger within his leeringly red eyes “Yes! Thank you for seeing me at such short notice doctor. I’ve heard about you around town and I appear to be having some issues with my lower area’s and I need them ‘fixed’” The Voodoo Doctor warmly smiled and leisurely sat down upon his creaking throne of bone whilst he secretly proceeded to undress Poppy with his perverted eyes, silently imagining what he would do to here if given the opportunity within his reclusive boxcar.
After a few more satisfying puffs of his weed packed cigarette whilst he momentarily contemplating her in a variety of sexually explicit positions, he spoke again “Forgive but you don’t appear to be the type of lady from around these parts? Your skin so smooth, your immaculate manicured nails, your blonde hair so fine even under this disguise that you’re so obviously wearin’” Poppy interrupted him quickly, not wishing to scare away the potential Mad Butcher and attempting to explain away the ever observant Voodoo Doctor’s keen perceptions “I’ve only just recently come upon hard times and I’m in desperate need of your medical services because of this. You see it’s a rather sensitive matter and involves an unwanted pregnancy, all terribly embarrassing stuff to be honest”
The suspicious Voodoo Doctor took another long hard look at her again, still undressing her with his leering eyes and then he slowly stood up as Poppy gave him her “frightened and lost innocent girl” look that usually melted any man’s cold heart. The Voodoo Doctor then walked slowly around the rickety table and sat on the end of it by the front left leg which caused it to creak under his immense weight. He then took another puff of his impressively crafted magic weed packed cigarette before he smiled and spoke again “Would you like me to tell you your fortune lady, before we begin this technical ‘medical’ procedure that you’re asking for?”
The smiling Voodoo Doctor expectantly looked at her whilst he satisfactorily puffed on his bellowing cigarette which smoke pleasurably filled his awaiting lungs. He enjoyed this fabricated false foreplay that she was dancing with him within his wandering mind and he was keen to start and fondle her fantastic breasts which were literally begging to be tasted within his wanting mouth. A lost looking Poppy then once again hit him with here large longing, innocent looking eyes which she had perfected a long time ago whilst she was a child and then hesitantly spoke whilst creating a false shaking quiver deep within her voice “Why yes! Sure ok! But will it cost extra?”
The smiling Voodoo Doctor now forgot all of his misgiving about the mysteriously well-groomed and alluring young woman whom sat on his infamous patient’s chair as he then put his hand in his trouser pocket and pulled out an old cotton bag. He then slowly got up from the creaking table and walked back around to his throne of bone and sniggered to himself as he sat back down upon it with the grace and distinction of a long lost and refined aristocrat that satisfactorily dominated all her surveyed. He once again looked at her and desired her body now more than ever but would continue to play this game and put up this false facade for it amused him to do so. He then abruptly finished off his magic weed laden cigarette, stubbed it out on the table and proceeded to throw the contents of the mysterious old cotton bag haphazardly upon his well-worn wooden table.
Merlyo rolled his eyes in disgust at the crooks lack of shame as he leaned back so as Zalewski could take a better look inside the boxcar, although he suspected that Zalewski was far more interested in the actual smell of the boxcar rather than the Voodoo Doctor himself. By now both detectives had deduced that the infamously indefectible Voodoo Doctor was simply a mere charlatan whom was playing some sort of profitable false charade here deep within Kingsbury Run. The struggling Merlyo then looked to his side as he curiously noticed that the goat legging wearing guard with the baseball bat appeared to be asleep and lying in the nearby overgrown grass which flanked the old railway tracks. He was apparently fast asleep and snoring loudly within the intermittent sun whilst a light drizzle of warm rain coated the area in its glistening and gentle embrace. Merlyo thought to himself that this weather phenomenon was known as a Sunshower or in Tennessee specifically as A Devil Kissing His Wife because it was sunny and raining at the same time and momentarily pondered its meaning and ancient origin. He looked at the sleeping guard whom was now unbecomingly snoring in the distance as the sunlight illuminated the light rain drizzle between the two of them, thankful that he now had one less problem to worry about.
Back inside the mysterious domain of the Voodoo Doctor’s boxcar, the man himself eagerly analysed the assortment of strange objects that lay haphazardly upon his table whilst an interested Poppy leaned in forward to get a better view of the bizarre items. She noticed a small red painted rock with a skull motif upon it, a piece of circular old mirror which probably originated from a pendant, a dried lizards tail, a pink glass marble, a dried chicken’s foot, a small wooden statue and a marmosets skull which all chaotically littered the table. After a momentary pause and whilst mumbling to himself, the Voodoo Doctor took out another fat cigarette from the box on the table and then slowly sat back in quiet contemplation. He then put both his feet up on the table which caused his throne to creak in protest as he did so for exerting undue pressure upon its already flimsy frame.
He then lit the fat cigarette with a match and satisfactorily puffed on the best magic weed that money could buy before he finally spoke again “Lady! You want the truth, or you want me to tell you an ‘attractive lie’?” He continually glanced at the items which lay upon the table with immense interest as he probed his mystical interpretation of there apparently random locations. Poppy replied in an almost sarcastic way as even she now had deduced that this so-called mysterious Voodoo Doctor was simply a perverted charlatan whom was robbing the lowest of society for his own financial gain “I always prefer the TRUTH doctor no matter how much it hurts” she emphasized the word “truth” so that the listening Merlyo and could hear her under the boxcar and hopefully deduce that
this entire operation was a complete farce and waste of her precious time.
This doctor was no deranged Mad Butcher and simply a common trickster and Poppy was secretly growing ever more furious as this charlatan continued to talk and spread his medicine of lies. She secretly cursed the selfish Merlyo within her preoccupied mind because she suspected that this whole undercover operation was just a ruse in order to get her wavering attention to be refocused back upon him again. It was true that she had been actively avoiding him of late but this was simply because she had been become ill with depression over how her own unsatisfactory and turbulent life was turning out. She felt somewhat trapped by various aspects of her troubling life and she did not wish to speak to anyone about it, neither the cunning Merlyo, the drug infused Ness nor the charlatan Voodoo Doctor.
The Voodoo Doctor looked at her somewhat bemused but then closed his eyes and spoke in a commandingly relaxed tone after taking in yet more of his potent magical weed cigarette, appearing to descend into a spiritual state which made Poppy’s eyes roll in contempt “I sense you have a gift lady, you see things that others can’t! You see but you keep this gift to yourself? You’re connected to the spirits but you hate them all for not helping you when you needed them the most in life, you resent them even? You think if spirits are real then so is God and you hate him for what he’s done to you in your past” A pleasantly surprised Poppy looked at him with raised eyebrows and had a sudden new sense of belief in the strange man’s abilities because it felt like she was indeed naked before him, in a spiritual sense. He appeared to be looking directly into her very soul because everything that he just said made perfect sense to her and he then continued his spiritual journey as the newly enthusiastic Poppy eagerly awaiting his next words “You don’t trust anyone and keep yourself distant from all, even the ones that you love the most for fear of rejection. You hate who you are and what you’ve become”
A closed eyed Voodoo Doctor then leaned in and quickly grabbed her outstretched hand by the wrist, startling the unprepared Poppy, and slowly turned it around. He then felt the old scar that she had upon her wrist and then he did the same to the other arm as he motioned to her for it, gently running his finger across the old healed wounds of each before placing them back and leaned back upon his creaking throne. He paused for a second before he slowly opened his eyes to view the genuinely emotional Poppy whom had been moved by his words of immense insight into her troubled life. He contemplated his next negative words with immense care for fear of losing such a potentially beautiful new addition to add to his victorious list of female conquests “Ok! The truth is lady that you’re surrounded by death! You court death and have done so for a while now, since you were born in fact! Death is coming for you lady and you know it because you’ve felt it, you seen it even! Under the fireworks you saw it, death that doesn’t wear a face and his faceless eyes are…?”
The Voodoo Doctor paused whilst trying to think of the correct word “His eyes are like mirrors… windows to the soul… reflecting life back upon itself from within the shadows? Mirrors represent death in my religion and these mirrors…” He paused as he saw a sudden flash within his wandering mind of the silhouette of the mysterious shadowy man’s unseen face that she had glimpsed through the maddening crowds at the Great Lakes Exposition. The Voodoo Doctor felt himself become immersed within the sensitive spiritual world as his he felt his soul be pulled from his body and being brought to the very location of Poppy’s encounter with “death”.
He momentarily felt confused as he noticed a large and suffocating crowd starting to stop swirling around him within the darkened plaza of the Great Lakes Exhibition. After his head stopped spinning he frantically looked around until he saw Poppy’s strikingly red flowing dress which conveniently illuminated her singular presence within the surrounding shadowy crowd. The spirit walking Voodoo Doctor then noticed the same large silhouette shaped man as he stood across the plaza from the illuminated red Poppy and keenly watched this shadowy stranger as he obsessively observed her movements within the darkened crowd. He was perplexed by the shadowy man’s round spectacles that contained vacantly reflective eyes as they looked across the plaza at Poppy’s beckoning visage. The Voodoo Doctor then tried to get a better view of the indiscernible stranger as he spirit walked through the endless maddening crowds and towards the mysterious shadowy man’s last known location.
The Voodoo Doctor then thought he heard an owl’s hoot as the impressive fireworks erupted into life overhead until he also noticed something truly frightening. The shadowy stranger then abnormally started to slowly turn his head towards the Voodoo Doctors own location and it was as if the strange stranger had heeded the unseen owl’s call that there was an intruder within this ethereal realm. The alarmed spirit walking Voodoo Doctor had never experienced this before in all his mind bending travels into the realm of the beyond, another entity noticing his presence during a spirit walk session. The scared Voodoo Doctor looked directly into the troubling unflinching gaze of the unnameable black abomination as it starred back at him with a hidden malice that he could feel whilst gazing into its hollow and reflective eyes.
The stranger was no longer a man but something else, something dark and foreboding that even now could not been seen directly because its massive frame remained hidden within a vibrantly shimmering shadow which cloaked its body. The maddening thing then started to hastily move towards the frightened Voodoo Doctor and effortlessly cut through the crowds as it did so, easily pushing past the mass of shadows which stood between it and its new quarry. Shadowy crowds then thankfully passed by and blocked its reflective gaze upon him and a shaking Voodoo Doctor then continued to speak to Poppy whilst he sweated profusely upon his throne “I perceived it has no soul of its own, it’s lost no? No! It’s not lost but… It belongs to another… It belongs to…?”
A deeply breathing yet curious Voodoo Doctor then paused again as he attempted to get a better view of the elusively mysterious creature as he looked through the shadowy crowds, causing his physical body to mimic his squinting facial movements as he did so. He then suddenly felt that something was ominously standing directly behind him as all the crowd around him became instantly silent and stopped moving. The nameless faces of the crowd then turned and silently screamed as they all starred behind him with their hands ominously raised and pointing towards something that now breathed heavily down upon him. The profusely sweating and petrified veteran spirit walker then slowly turned around to be greeted by the screeching, blackened and maddening featureless face of the black abomination as its mirror like round eyes reflected his own pure terror back upon himself. The screaming Doctor Voodoo was coated in a thickly blackened salvia as the maddening creature mercilessly screamed angrily at him for his sacrilegious intrusion into this sacred domain.
The startled Voodoo Doctor was instantly broken out of his deep spirit walk, opened his worried eyes and remained deadly still as his sweaty hands clutched the throne of bone armrests with a vice like grip. Thinking that he had miraculous escaped the gruesome creature that had been stalking Poppy at the Great Lakes Exhibition, he breathed a sigh of relief until he troublingly saw something move within the small mirror on the wall which hung precariously behind the transfixed Poppy. Unbelievably he now saw the very same large, ominous and shadowy abomination that was within his spirit walk staring right back at him with its empty, soulless and round mirrored eyes from inside the mirror.
The silent Poppy watched on in fascination as she now believed that he may very well be an authentic man of the spirit world after all and not just some simple charlatan whom craved money and bodily gratification. The petrified Voodoo Doctor was motionless as he looked into the troubling gaze of the silent intruder that had invaded his mirror from the beyond and felt the hairs on the back of his neck stick up on end. The abomination looked like some sort of otherworldly giant predatory owl as its round hollow eyes gazed down upon its trembling victim, as if it had now found its new prey within thi
s real world of physicality.
A transfixed Poppy could see he was not looking at her but behind her and so she quickly spun around to see what his gaze was alarmingly transfixed upon but she saw nothing except the empty mirror, a bubbling cauldron and a rather ugly looking demon statue. She then confusingly looking back at the still transfixed medicine man as he then then closed his eyes and shook his head from side to side. The Voodoo Doctor thought that his weed soaked mind was playing yet another cruel trick upon him and after a moment he hesitantly reopened his eyes one by one and looked yet again at the mirror.
He was relieved to see that there was no longer any malevolent presence within its reflection and the horrific unwelcoming apparition had vanished from this realm of existence and crawled back to whatever shadowy realm it resided in. After a moment’s hesitation he then continued to speak with a shaky voice whilst still appearing to be preoccupied with the mirror, constantly checking it whilst he looked suspiciously at his still smouldering cigarette before forcefully stubbing it out “Er? You know many cultures in the world view the feathered doom bird of the owl as a harbinger of death? The Kikuya tribe of Kenya, native American Apache and Seminole tribes and even the south American Aztecs, Maya and the Hpoi. I’ll be honest with you lady, you’re in some serious trouble! It’s been following you for a long time, ever since you escaped its clutches when you were a baby in that graveyard and there’s no way out for you to find the peace that you want except in the loving arms of death itself! Death will be your only deliverance from the pain that has hurt you so badly throughout your life! Death haunts you lady!”
The Noir Evil Page 40
