by Koboah, A D
“So I ain’t never gonna see you again or know where you is?” I asked, dreading such a clean-cut amputation.
“Well, maybe your extra senses will detect my presence. But I will never intrude as I have done thus far.”
“No, Avery. If you’s gonna leave me then...then stay away for good.”
I tried to take my hand out of his but he held on.
“Do not ask that of me, Luna. What I am doing is going to be hard enough. You cannot ask that of me,” he said, his eyes alight with anger.
I said nothing, wouldn’t even look at him.
“Luna, please. I do not want these last precious moments with you to be like this. Please. I will never intrude in your life again but allow me to be able to know that you are safe and happy. Please, Luna.”
Hating that way he had of making me feel as if his whole world hung on the smallest thing I said or did, I nodded. “I’s sorry. You know I don’t mean what I just said.”
The smile that touched his lips spoke of so much gratitude that it completely disarmed me and I was left bare and trembling whilst the sun rose even higher in the sky.
“I have some gifts for you, Luna.”
Reaching into his pocket, he took out a gold chain with a cross on it and placed it in my hand.
“This was given to me by someone long ago. She gave it to me in the hopes that it would keep me safe. And I believe it has. I want you to have this now, Luna. The other gift is the farmhouse you saw in your mind a moment ago. I had it built for you, so no matter what happens, you will always have a home. The last thing concerns Jupiter, or I should say, Dembi. That is his real name. I saw it in his mind, but now that he is a slave he no longer feels worthy of it. You should know this if the two of you are...well...”
He trailed off and looked into the distance, his face a tapestry of untold misery. I stared at the gold chain for a few moments, my thoughts on the farmhouse I had seen, and for a moment I couldn’t speak. Then I reached up and placed the gold chain around his neck, tucking it under his cravat.
“No, Avery. I’s gonna be fine so long’s I knows you out there somewhere even if I don’t never sees you. Thank you, for everything you done for me.” I let my hand rest on his chest. “You gots to go now, Avery. I don’t want this moment ruined when you drops dead at my feet.”
I tried to smile but it hurt too much.
He nodded, covering my hand on his chest with both of his, looking down at it as if all his hopes and dreams were contained in there. It seemed hard for him to do, but he slowly let it go.
“It will take them about three quarters of an hour to reach here,” he said.
When he looked at me again it was as if the life was draining out of his eyes while the ancient longing that had lived in them slowly stole in to take its place.
“Goodbye, Luna.”
I looked down and tried to mumble a goodbye but somehow the words wouldn’t leave my lips. Then he quickly kissed me on the forehead and by the time I looked up and reached out to grasp his arms, to grasp anything of his to keep him with me, he was gone.
I would never see him again.
I stood there, feeling completely listless and bereft. Although I couldn’t feel that pulling sensation yet, I knew it would soon come. A breeze had picked up by this time, rustling the leaves above me and making the tall grass cower under its might, but I hardly felt it.
He was gone and I would never see him again. My life would now be lived in the harsh glare of the sun and without him it would kill me as surely as if I were the light-fearing demon.
I stood like that for a while, wallowing in my misery and weeping at the thought of what I had lost. And he didn’t know. He didn’t know how much I would suffer without him.
That was when I came to my senses.
What was I doing?
I was no longer a slave. I was free now and had been free ever since the night Avery had spirited me away with him into the woods. I was free and yet I was still thinking and acting like a slave. How could I not believe that Avery loved me? He had seen into my mind, had heard my stupid, vain thoughts and all the ugly little things most people would have held against me, and yet he had not judged. So how could I believe he would want anyone else?
What he felt for me was obvious, but having lived a life filled with insecurity, the voice of doubt still tried to tell me I was wrong. He should have known I loved him, it insisted. I showed him only a few hours ago. But no, he didn’t know, I realised. He didn’t know what it meant because as he had said so often, it had always been my mind that interested him. My mind, my thoughts, my words. But like the lowly slave I still thought myself, I had believed my body mattered more than those things. The chains keeping me in bondage may have been shattered, but the ones that had bound me mentally would take far longer to cast off, if it was indeed possible to completely break them. That is when I began to realise the enormity of my foolishness.
He thought he was doing the right thing by letting me go and by allowing him to do so, I had failed him terribly. He needed me as much as I needed him, no, even more so, and yet I had allowed him to walk away to live in solitude and desolation.
I looked around frantically and began to run back towards the rock face, the tears flowing freely down my cheeks as I thought about all I had given up because of my own stupidity.
“Avery, Avery,” I sobbed as I came to a standstill in the wilderness.
The sun ducked behind a cloud and an ominous gloom settled around me. For the first time in a month, I felt fearful of my surroundings. Covering my face with my hands, I wept in the graveyard silence that had crept in unnoticed, knowing that I would suffer for the rest of my life. What made it even worse was that he would suffer too, and for that I knew I would never forgive myself.
Chapter Nineteen
“Luna!”
Was I imagining that voice? It was distant but sounded unmistakably like Avery. I looked up to see him running toward me, running much faster than a man but running nonetheless.
“Avery?”
My heart filled and then overflowed with elation at the sight of him. I had a chance to make everything right again.
I ran toward him, so caught up in the joy of the moment that I didn’t stop to think about the unusual fact that he was running, although so fast he was almost a blur, instead of crossing the space between us in the blink of an eye.
He reached me a few seconds later and looked completely taken aback when I ran into his arms, still crying. He pulled me away from him so that he could look into my face, his own expression one of fearful concern.
“What happened, Luna?” he asked looking in the direction from which I had come. “Are they here? What happened?”
“It ain’t them, Avery. I just...I just...”
I still couldn’t say it. I still couldn’t say those three little words that had the power to change everything, but I had to try.
“When...when you asked why I made love to you last night, it...I’s wanting you to know I don’t want to leaves you.”
He cupped my face in his hands.
“Oh, Luna. I promised that you had nothing to be afraid of when you go back—”
“Naw, Avery!” I cried, appalled at the conclusion he had drawn. “That ain’t my meaning. When you asked about Jupiter, I lied. I do feels for him but...but it ain’t nothing compared to what I feels for you, and I wants you to never leave me, ever.”
It seemed as if he couldn’t speak. He simply stared at me in quiet joy and wonder as I carried on talking.
“I wants you to know that I’s gonna follow wherever you go and for as long as you’ll has me. If you won’t let me be with you, then promise you gonna let me see you from time to time over the years.”
“Luna, Luna,” he whispered, drawing me to him. He kissed me on the forehead and I sank into him, holding on as tight as I could. “You do not understand how much what you have said means to me.”
“Then promise you gonna come back for me in o
ne week. A week be all I need to convince Mama. You has to ’cause I can’t live without you.”
“Oh, Luna.” He looked radiant with happiness but sadness marked his eyes. “My dear, Luna. It...it is too late. They are coming.”
He glanced away into the trees again whilst I gazed up at him in confusion. And then I realised what he’d meant.
The sunlight. I had called him out into the sunlight when he was at his weakest and they were coming.
“Oh Lord! Avery, you has to get away before they sees you.”
“It is too late. They are already here. Can you not feel them?”
I looked around me and noticed for the first time that the temperature had dropped. The wind sweeping through the trees was almost violent and seemed to whisper of malevolence. I realised that the gloom that had settled on our surroundings had nothing to do with the sun being hidden by a cloud. It was also far too silent and there appeared to be no sign of any living thing apart from us.
“Your mother has sent them for me. They’ve caught my scent now so I won’t be able to escape.”
I could hear something in the air around us now, a faint but clearly audible murmur, which sounded like something creeping beneath a decaying tomb.
What had I done?
“No,” I moaned. “Why you stay when you knowed they be coming for you? Why, Avery?”
“I could not go until I knew that you were safe, Luna. Please, don’t cry.”
The murmuring was much louder now and I heard low unearthly sniggering that filled me with a black fear. I couldn’t see its source, but I could sense that the air was thick with them and their malicious energy as they drew strength from our fear.
“No! I ain’t gonna let this happen. I’s gonna die before I lets anybody takes you away from me.”
“You will do no such thing,” he said sternly, but when he spoke again his tone was gentle.
“You have to understand, Luna. I have been in the grip of this bloodlust for over fifty years and I have done so many terrible, terrible things because of it. But if not for this demonic power I would not have lived long enough to find you or be in a position to take you out of bondage as I have now done. These past few weeks with you have been the happiest of my life. But this is my time to die. No, listen to me, Luna. It is my time to die and because of you I can die a man and not the beast I was when I found you. And the best thing is that I’ll die knowing I was somehow worthy of your love.”
The tumult surrounding us had grown stronger now. It was as if we were standing in the eye of a hurricane and I could hear more of that vicious-sounding laughter in the air.
“You have to get to a safe distance now, before they attack,” he said looking anxiously around us.
“No, I ain’t gonna let them kill you!”
“Those men will be here any second now. If they see us like this they will kill you and I will be too weak to stop them, so go!”
He tried to push me away but I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him. He yielded and returned my kiss fiercely for a few seconds but then pulled away and pushed me back as something almost knocked him off his feet.
Watching Avery stagger backwards, I felt my insides turn to water as a slithery cackle punctuated the air. Maybe it was only my imagination, but I thought I saw long silvery wisps swimming through the gloom, caught glimpses of claws, long terrifying teeth, and a shimmer of cold merciless eyes. Avery was knocked back again as they descended on him, but then he steadied himself and seemed to concentrate on the air around him. I heard cries of frustration and anger as he used his dwindling power to push them back.
I ran toward Avery, deciding that if he was to die right now, then I would die with him, but he anticipated this and I found myself being pushed back as he focused his energy on getting me out of harm’s way.
“Nooo! Avery, no...” I screamed, and then found that I couldn’t speak. I was flung to my knees at the foot of a tree, my arms yanked up to cover my head so that anyone looking upon the scene would think that I was cowering away from what was happening. I fought to move or to at least speak to him, but I soon realised that it was futile. Worse, I realised that since he was using his dwindling strength to keep me out of the way, he was leaving himself defenceless against the attack. When they descended upon him again, he was knocked off his feet and thrown back against a tree with a horrific cracking sound. The force of that collision would have killed a man, and for a moment I thought I had lost Avery, until I heard him utter a low moan. He ground his teeth together as he was pinned to the tree and pummelled by the spirits, who tore at his clothes and drew bright spots of blood on his face and neck.
“She was right, there they are!” I heard someone shout out and my horror deepened as three white men with guns rounded the rock face. One of them had a heavy silver chain hung over one shoulder. They were joined by Master John with Mr Walker, Jupiter and Mama the last to appear.
When I saw Mama I stopped trying to fight my way out from under Avery’s control and for a moment completely forgot about the danger he was in. She was so thin now that her face was all sharp angles with hardly any flesh to soften the protruding bones, and her arms were like twigs hanging out of her shirt. When Avery had told me about the evil spirit she had conjured up, a part of me had wanted to believe he had been exaggerating about the danger she was in, but I could see that it was literally eating her alive. She looked even older now and her eyebrows were peppered with grey. She was also extremely weak. Mr Walker and Jupiter were all but carrying her. But the worst thing about her, the thing that chilled me to the bone and made me think we were too late to save her, was the blankness I saw in her eyes, as if she was no longer present within her own body. Her expression was one of intense hate when her gaze fell on Avery, who had stopped struggling and was staring at Mama with his mouth open.
“Put the chains around it, now!” she shrieked. “I cannot control them for much longer.”
At first no one moved. The three men seemed afraid, not only of Avery, but of the very air around him, which was alive with hateful, malicious, invisible things. Then two of them moved forward, the third keeping his gun on Avery as the heavy silver chain was wrapped around him. Avery seemed to weaken further and cried out in pain. I felt the hold he had on me give slightly as he sank to the ground.
Then the air around him grew quieter as the spirits Mama had summoned were banished back to wherever they had come from, their groans of frustration and disappointment seeming to linger long after they were gone.
It was only then that Mama seemed to come back to herself a little bit. The blankness in her eyes slowly diminished and she even managed to regain strength enough to stand on her own.
“Jupiter,” she cried. “Now! Do not give it a chance to get away.”
Jupiter released the hold he had on her and moved toward Avery. Panic surged through me at the sight of the axe in his hand.
“No.” Master John grabbed hold of Jupiter’s shirt roughly as he passed him. “I’ll do it!”
He took the axe out of Jupiter’s hands and moved cautiously forward whilst Avery gazed at him with quiet hatred. Avery had blood on his chin and he bared his teeth, exposing his fangs. He hissed almost seductively, making fear leap into Master John’s eyes.
Avery! I pleaded. Let me go. Let me go!
I struggled even harder against him as Master John loomed over Avery with the axe.
“Kill it!” Mama Akosua screamed. “Cut off its head! Kill it now!”
I realised then that it was no use trying to break free with my physical strength. I had to use my mind if I had any hope of escape. So I concentrated as Master John raised the axe above his head with both hands.
I think the panic and fear must have given my mind the sharp focus it needed because I felt the hold he had on me loosen and then fall away completely. I was on my feet and running in seconds, my gaze on the axe in Master John’s hand as I ran to put myself between it and Avery.
“Luna!” Mama s
creamed, the word nearly lost in a tangle of inarticulate pain and fear too deep to completely fathom as Master John brought the axe down with brute strength before he had time to register that I was directly in its path.
I stood paralysed with fear and everything seemed to slow down as I watched horror bloom in Master John’s eyes at the realisation that he wouldn’t be able to stay his hand in time to prevent the mortal blow.
The axe came down within inches of my shoulder but before it could connect and sever my flesh and bone, the killing instrument came to an abrupt stop as if it had connected with solid matter. Master John winced in pain as if his arm had connected with stone.
Avery, I thought as I reached up and pushed the axe away from me.
“Stop!” I cried. “You can’t kill him.”
Master John stared at me, wide-eyed and shaking slightly at the realisation of how close he had come to killing me. Then rage twisted his face.
“You dumb nigger! Get out of the way.”
He struck me then, catching the side of my head with the back of his hand and I hit the ground hard. Avery lurched forward and up onto one knee with a snarl as Master John leapt back with a scream. I didn’t give myself time to register the pain radiating along the side of my head as I scrambled to my feet.
Avery was weakening, and fast. I could see it in the way he fell back onto both knees and barely struggled against his chains.
“Jupiter, finish it off!” Mama Akosua commanded. “Now, before it is too late!”
“No,” I cried and moved once more to stand in front of Avery.
“Luna, what are you—?” Avery began but I spun on him before he could finish.
“Hush, you...you devil!”
I didn’t let my gaze linger on the look of utter confusion on his face or focus too long on the fact that his mouth quivered with uncertainty at my words. I had to act fast if there was to be any chance of getting him out of here alive.
