by Candis Vargo
What she saw changed, but it was still dark.
She was inside her house, peeking around the basement steps at her parents.
The basement was lit by dozens of candles, causing shadows to dance on the cement walls. Drumming and chanting filled her ears as she curiously watched what was happening. Her parents were drumming as they sat in a circle that was drawn on the floor in red. Inside of the circle she saw what she thought was a star.
There was a stranger—a tall, dark man who danced around her parents. He was bald, and he was dressed in all red.
She realized he was the one chanting.
More red paint was poured on the floor, creating symbols she didn’t understand. Bones and statues sat within the circles of candles.
The drumming grew louder, and Hailey straightened her back as a cold chill ran down her spine.
“Haaaaileeeeey.” The voice sounded from her side.
She was about to turn and look when the drumming and chanting stopped, and the stranger locked his eyes with hers.
Hailey’s mother grabbed her, leading her upstairs.
Her mother tucked her into bed again and handed her a drink.
For the first time, she realized that her mother kept all the lights on…even when she was to go to sleep.
“Sleep, sweetheart,” she said.
Hailey didn’t ask any questions. She took a few sips, and in a moment’s time she was sleeping.
Her vision changed once again. She was in her bedroom, playing with her baby dolls. She wasn’t alone. She had some friends there, some friends she knew her mommy didn’t like. Her mommy always tried to keep her friends away from her, and she didn’t understand why. She was laughing and giggling when her mother opened her bedroom door.
“Hailey, what are you doing, sweetheart?”
“Mommy,” Hailey protested. “You scared them away! You scared my friends away!”
Her mother narrowed her eyes. “What friends, Hailey?” Her voice was grim.
“The Dark Ladies, Mommy.”
Chapter 7
Hailey let out a blood-curdling scream as she jolted up on the couch. Everyone else jumped too.
“What the fuck was that?” She yelled.
She took deep breaths, trying to still her heart. With the way it had been racing lately, she was sure she would end up dying of a heart attack.
“Um, you tell us. That was some crazy shit.” Pat walked over to sit beside her.
Hailey looked at him, confused.
“Yeah, you said everything you saw. That’s seriously some screwed-up shit, Hail.”
“That couldn’t have been real.” She shook her head. “That couldn’t have been real, could it?”
“I- I,” Kris stuttered, “E-everything you said was from your memories, Hailey. It’s what’s embedded in your subconscious from your childhood. It could just be someone who wasn’t good to you as a kid and your mind pictures them as those women. Say somebody hurt you in an unimaginable way…you could be picturing that person as those women to protect yourself.”
“Well, I’m pretty damn positive no one has every hurt me like that. So, you’re telling me that I saw these…what’d I call them? Dark Ladies? I saw them when I was a kid, but yet don’t remember it? I’m pretty sure that’s something that would be hard as hell to get out of my mind.”
Pat looked at her, his eyes filled with sorrow. “Or something you’d be determined to erase, Hail.”
Hailey shook her head. She didn’t know what to say. How could she have seen those things so frequently thought out her childhood and not remember? And with the way her parents acted, it was like they saw them too. She didn’t understand any of it.
It looked like her parents were doing voodoo, and yet she also thought she saw love in her mother’s eyes. Her mother didn’t know how to love. It couldn’t have been real. None of it made any sense.
If it was, wouldn’t Alex at least have a memory of some of it?
“Alex,” Hailey said as she looked over at Emily. “Wouldn’t he remember something?”
Emily sat with her arms protectively wrapped around her baby, as if her womb weren’t safe enough. She lifted her shoulders and tilted her head. “He doesn’t remember much either, Hailey.”
“See. Alex doesn’t—” Hailey was cut off.
“Hailey,” Emily said, “what worries me is that he does remember you having imaginary friends. Or at least he thought they were imaginary, and there were several of them. All grown women.”
“He never said anything.”
Pat moved next to Hailey and started to rub her back, trying to comfort her.
“Why would he? You were a kid, and a lot of kids have imaginary friends. There really wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for him to point out. We were just talking about what little he remembers one day, and that was something he mentioned.”
“I can’t do this.” Hailey stood up, and Pat followed her lead. “I’m sorry. I really appreciate what you were trying to do for me, Kris, I do. Emily, thank you. But I can’t do this. I need to go, clear my head or some shit.”
“It’s all right.” Emily scooted herself forward on the couch and leaned her torso back. She placed her hand on the back of the couch for support as she stood up. She winced, and sucked in a deep breath. She grabbed the underside of her stomach. When she relaxed she realized that Pat, Kris, and Hailey were all looking at her with concern. “Braxton Hicks contractions,” she laughed.
“Hailey.” Kris’ voice was soft. “I just want to warn you that sometimes people will have more memories come back to them, even after the session is over. You need to prepared for that.”
Hailey nodded before she narrowed her eyes in thought.
“Kris,” she said. ” I’m not trying to pry, and feel free to slap me if I'm out of line here, but…is this the same type of thing your husband went through?”
Kris had smiled sadly.
“No,” she replied. “Mike’s delusions were much worse. After his accident, he truly believed in the Mia and Eli characters he had in his head. There was nothing left of us in there. I tried everything I could with him…shit, even when he said their death dates he couldn’t even get it right. He just never noticed."
Sympathy covered Hailey’s face. “I'm sorry, Kris. That's just…for a lack of better words, crazy.” Hailey shook her head, “How did you do it? How did you let him leave?”
Kris shrugged. “I went through that with him for three years. The same game and same people, over and over. It just gets to the point where you realize that, them being happy, even if it's just in their head, is what’s important to you. I had to let him go. I truly believed he would live an okay life since he was at peace with his imaginary family being deceased…I don't know what happened.”
“Oh, honey, now this is just getting too damn sad," Pat said before he leaned in and gave Emily, then Kris, a hug. “Meet you in the car, sweetie,” he said to Hailey. “This is too much heartache for me.”
Pat walked out the door, closing it behind him.
“I'm sorry,” Hailey said again as she embraced Kris.
Kris laughed. “It’s okay, really. I’m okay now.”
After leaning over Emily’s belly to give her a hug, Hailey said, “Thank you,” to both of them and headed outside to meet up with Pat.
Chapter 8
Hailey couldn’t get the images of the Dark Ladies out of her head. She sat in her living room, remembering how her mother had protected her. How could a woman like that have become as cold and distant as the woman she remembered?
“You okay over there? You’re awful quiet.” Pat sat next to her on the couch, and she realized she hadn’t spoken a word the entire ride home.
“Yeah. It’s just…what was that shit? Some voodoo ritual crap going on? God, I just don’t get how I wouldn’t remember any of that stuff.”
“Um, sweetie…that was some seriously screwed-up shit you said. Something that crazy, I’d have blocked it out too. Hey,
I’m gonna make you some hot tea, and I really think you should relax.”
Pat left for the kitchen. She had been so out of it that she didn’t realize it was starting to get dark. “How long was I out for?” she yelled into the kitchen.
He walked back in the living room with the tea. “You were under her spell for hours, babe.” He handed her the cup and sat back down beside her, folding one leg underneath him.
“Holy shit.” Her voice was nearly a whisper. “Yeah, I don’t think I’m going to get any sleep tonight.”
Though she knew she wasn’t actually sleeping while she was under hypnosis, her body had felt rested enough to stay awake all night. Her mental state, on the other hand, was exhausted. A part of her was relieved that she wasn’t tired, because she didn’t want to dream about anything she had discovered today, but she knew she needed to be at her best for work. Their entire future depended on this job getting done, and getting done perfectly.
“That’s why I brought you these.” Pat held his hand out, and in his palm sat two little blue pills.
“Where’s the red ones?” She laughed.
“You don’t get a choice of reality, unfortunately. But if you want sleep, you do get these.”
Reluctantly, Hailey threw the two sleeping pills in her mouth and swallowed them. She knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep if she didn’t take them, and Pat was willing to stay by her side all night, even if it were just to ease her mind.
***
When she woke in the morning, she was relieved that she didn’t dream. When she started to move, a pounding in her head demanded she stay still. She heard Pat in the kitchen, and could smell the coffee he was brewing.
A sharp pain pierced through her head. She grabbed it with both hands and screamed. Pat ran into the room, but she couldn’t see him—her mind was elsewhere.
Visions of the man who was doing the rituals engulfed her sight. She saw him over and over, doing one ritual after another. There was desperation in his eyes when he looked at her. He cared for her, she could tell. Though he looked so familiar to her she couldn’t place him, because she blocked out the memories.
She was able to tell the difference between the rituals because in each flash of memory he was wearing something slightly different, though it was always red. Dozens of candles were always lit, and different symbols were always painted in red. In between what Hailey saw of the rituals, she would see herself, and she was never alone. There were always at least one Dark Lady with her, and at times there were over a dozen.
They were always there with her, just watching.
There was never any sign of them wanting to hurt her, but she knew they wanted something from her. She just didn’t know what.
The visions came to an abrupt stop, and the pain vanished. She lay on the couch, ensuring what she’d seen was gone. Once she was sure it was, she jumped off of the couch and ran into her room. She couldn’t explain it, but she had an uncanny urge to find out who that man was.
“What the hell is going on, Hail? Are you okay?” Pat followed her into her bedroom.
“I have to find him,” she said, flinging her closet doors open. “I don’t know why, but I have to find him.”
“Find who?”
“The voodoo guy. I don’t know what to call him.” She pulled a shoebox off the top shelf. From the past encounters with those Dark Ladies, she knew they were counting down and she only had one day left. Anxiety built up inside of her. They were counting down to her birthday, and she had to figure it all out now.
Tomorrow wasn’t far away.
“What? No. No no no no no. You’re not going hunting for some voodoo king or whatever. Not happening.” Pat grabbed her arms, making her stop.
“Pat. This was your idea, remember? And he’s the only one who will have answers for me. About what’s happening to me and these…these memories.”
“Why don’t you call your dad?” Pat pleased.
“If I had a working number for him, maybe I would. I haven’t talked to him in years.” Freeing herself from his grasp, she dumped the box and pictures scattered across the floor. She began flipping them over, looking through them. “Even if I could call him, it’s not like he’d talk to me anyway. He’s always blamed me for mom killing herself. It’s like he thinks I was the one who cut her damn wrists.”
Pat let out a deep breath. “Fine. Let me help you,” he said, finally caving in. He walked over to her dresser and grabbed her tablet.
“What are you doing?”
Pat sat on Hailey’s bed and turned the tablet on. When he was done typing, he said, “If there’s some voodoo guy in Chester, New Hampshire, he’s bound to have something posted about him on the Internet.”
“Hopefully,” she said.
She continued rummaging through the pictures, emptying a few more shoeboxes full of them onto the floor. There were dozens of pictures of her family, her friends, and college memories. She knew there had to be a picture of him in there somewhere. The look in his eyes told her that he was more than just a stranger.
She meant more to him, and she knew it.
Her eyes widened excitedly when she finally found what she’d been looking for. It was a picture of her at one of her birthday parties as she was about to blow out her candles on her cake, and her mother stood right behind her…but in the background she saw him. He sat at the far end of the kitchen, looking directly at the camera.
Hailey sat on her knees holding the picture in her hands, unable to take her eyes off it.
“Um, I think I found him,” Pat said
His words caught her attention, and she jerked her head up.
“Yeah?”
“Well, come look at the picture first and make sure that it’s him.”
Still clutching the photo in her hands, she sat down on the bed beside Pat. Looking at the screen, she saw the photo Pat had extended to full screen. There was no doubt it was him. The same acne scars were scattered throughout his face, and even through the pictures she could see the same depth in his brown eyes.
“Yeah, that’s him,” she said as she showed Pat the picture in her hands. “What’s it say?”
She set her photo down on the bed and started picking her fingernails.
“Well.” Pat brought the screen back to the main page. I was a website for a blogger who researched several areas in the country, shedding a light on the practice of voodoo and its origins. “Apparently, there’s this community about an hour north of us, and most of the members practice voodoo.”
Hailey skimmed the words on the screen until she found a quote that referred to the man in the picture.
“Maximum Dahmey, Voodoo Priest of Milton, NH. (see photo 2A).”
He knew something.
She couldn’t explain how she knew she had to contact him, but if there were a single intuitive bone in her body, it was leading her to him.
Chapter 9
Hailey grabbed the picture as she hopped off the bed. She folded it, and tucked it in her pocket before grabbing her phone off her nightstand.
“Why don’t you give Tori a call? Have her fill in for me today.”
Pat shut the tablet off. He looked at her with wide eyes. “Oh no, I don’t think so.”
Hailey punched the name of the town into the maps app on her phone.
“Pat, I need to do this. You can think I’m crazy all you want, but I’m going.”
“Listen.” Pat stood up and placed his hands firmly on her shoulders. He stared into her eyes. “I don’t think you’re crazy, okay? Actually, I know you’re not. From what you’ve dealt with in your life, especially adding in what you just found out…you should be, but you aren’t. I don’t know how you’re not…but, anyway, I know you need to go find this guy. I just don’t want you to go alone.”
Hailey shook her head. “You can’t come with me. This job at Sasha’s has to get done, and you’re the man to do it. Just give Tori a call, and don’t put her in a position to actually have a say in the design. I
’ve already ordered the new pieces for the first two rooms, and you have my sketches. It shouldn’t be hard for her to follow the drawings. I’ll be back before you know it.”
Hailey stood up on tippy toes, kissed Pat on the cheek, and walked out of her room.
“Be safe, Hail,” he yelled to her.
“Always,” she yelled back.
***
Hailey had imagined driving into a town that was a slum. When it came to voodoo, that was the image that Hollywood had put in her head. She pictured old, broken-down houses, and children running around without any shoes on, but Milton looked nothing like that.
Even though it was a small town, it was filled with normal shops, but a few extras had signs out for ritual and voodoo supplies. The town was clean and crisp, with no sign of litter anywhere.
She parked her Eclipse in front of the store called Raven’s Moons, and took a moment to try and prepare herself. She wasn’t a social butterfly by any means. She was nervous, but she knew she had to get this done. She got out of the car. Pulling the picture out of her back pocket, Hailey made her way into the store.
Bells on the door chimed as she walked inside, and the aroma of sweet incense welcomed her. Since the town looked nothing like she’d imagined, she figured she should have known better than to make assumptions about what everything else would look like. The store was painted light pink, with purple and orange decorations scattered throughout. Beautiful paper lanterns hung from the ceiling and a purple cloth was draped over the cashier’s counter.
“Can I help you find something?”
A young woman with light brown hair stood up from behind the counter. She looked to be in her early thirties, and she smiled brightly at Hailey before her face became stiff as stone. Her eyes danced around Hailey like she had an invisible outline that only she could see.
Hailey’s hands began shaking as she unfolded the picture and walked up to the woman.
“Hi, I’m, um, I’m looking for this man.” She laid the picture on the counter and pointed to Maximum.
