by A. D. Koboah
I disappeared and materialised again a few metres in the direction he was headed. He came to a stumbling halt, a half-scream caught in his throat. His eyes were bulging and sweat running down his face as he turned and fled in the other direction. But I was once more blocking his path, and this time, the scream that had caught in his throat was wrenched free and he darted to his left, screaming, his eyes oddly glazed. This time I let him run for a few seconds before I appeared before him once more and knocked him to the ground. He lay there staring up at me, whimpering as tears filled his eyes. He didn’t try to fight me when I took the whip that was tied to his belt and hauled him to his feet. I wound it around his neck, and leading him like an errant dog, I disappeared, pulling him with me into the ether.
A male Negro was walking down the front steps of the mansion. He practically leapt out of his skin when we materialised in front of him. He backed away along with a few others and screams once more filled the air as they ran into the mansion. I let them go, knowing I would not have to wait long.
Foster came to one of the downstairs windows a few seconds later, his face an ugly shade of red. He was breathing so heavily it looked as if his chest would burst out of the opulent teak coat he wore.
“Alden! Alden! Let him go!” he bellowed.
He disappeared from the window and I could hear his footsteps as he moved to the door. Other footsteps joined his and it seemed as if some kind of scuffle took place. I heard a mumbled curse and then the thick, sharp sound of a slap.
“Let me go!” he roared before the front door was wrenched open a few moments later.
His rage had begun to subside and raw fear marked his features. “My son, let him go. Take me instead.”
“Invite me inside,” I said softly.
Foster tried to step outside, but dark hands grasped him, holding him back, a few terrified faces peering from behind his large bulk. He violently shrugged them off and stepped outside. Another voice joined the others and I recognised Mrs Foster screaming his name, the most I had heard her say since we arrived. More footsteps descended toward the door and the multitude of voices raised in panic from within the house became a loud rumble.
“Take me instead, don’t harm him!” Foster pleaded.
“Invite me in!” I roared.
When he merely stood there trembling in the gathering dark, I pulled Alden’s head back by the hair, exposing his throat, my teeth bared. Foster’s eyes widened in alarm. He was in a blind panic and I took the opportunity to reach into his mind to heighten his fear and confusion.
“Come inside, come inside,” he blurted. “Just don’t hurt him.”
I felt the energy holding me back from the house loosen. I grasped Alden under the jaw, my other hand on his shoulder, and began to pull. Foster’s eyes widened in alarm, his mouth opening in a wordless cry as he tried to run toward his son. I concentrated my telekinetic energy on Alden’s neck. He was only able to utter a gurgled half-scream before I tore his head off. The blood gushed like a dark red river but I was already away from the dead son and before the father as he reached for his son’s dismembered body. I grasped Foster by the shoulders, lifted him off of his feet, and slammed him down on his back with devastating force. I heard his bones crunch, and the back of his head smashed inward like an egg, blood and brain matter oozing out onto the grass.
I did not allow myself to savour his death, for there were still many more left for me to kill.
I entered the mansion. Again they tried to escape but there was nowhere for them to run or hide. I chased them from room to room, slaughtering, their blood filling and exciting every inch of me as I rampaged through the mansion, led on by grief, revenge and despair. I completely surrendered myself to the malevolence that now inhabited my soul, caught in the red veil that pulled me into the dark bosom of evil.
I was in the kitchen when the veil lifted.
I had hold of one of the house slaves, a tall, lanky male. I was about to sink my fangs into his neck but something tugged me out of the crimson net I was trapped in. I pulled away and merely peered into the slave’s terror-filled eyes in confusion whilst he mumbled incoherently. I then became aware of what had actually pulled me out of the vermilion chaos.
Beneath the sound of his incoherent mumbling, and beyond that, the sound of some of the house slaves who had been fortunate enough to escape, running for their lives through the rain. Beneath the dark cries that characterised the Mississippi night and those of the woods, I heard another sound. Quick, shallow breaths and a rapid heartbeat. I do not know how that sound reached me above the din and the strident voice of the call for blood, but it did. I turned to the sound.
It was a child. A boy. He sat on the kitchen floor cleaving to the empty-eyed stare of a corpse. A female who was no doubt his mother. I remembered vaguely she had been the first person I killed when I pursued Mrs Foster into the kitchen. Her corpse was lying near the back door. The child’s eyes met mine. Surprisingly there was no fear from him, only shock. For him, the worst—the corpse by his side—had already happened.
I released the lanky Negro. His mumbles faded and he scrambled away from me to the door that led to the corridor. Before he could reach the door, I materialised in the doorway eliciting a low moan of despair from him which turned into a terrified cry when I grasped him by the arm and pushed him back into the kitchen, where he fell to his knees.
My gaze was drawn to his neck. The scent of blood was strong in the room, from the corpses all around, and especially from his strong vibrant flesh. I looked down at the ground, but even the floor was smeared in swirls of blood. I took a breath and tried to still the beast within trembling for more blood.
“Get him out of here,” I hissed with only a cursory glance at the boy.
He stared blankly at me for a few seconds and then his frightened gaze took in the child. I stepped to the side, leaving the doorway clear. He rose into a half-crouch and stumbled toward the boy, slipping and sliding in the blood on the floor. He pulled the child to him and rose with the boy to his chest.
He stood staring at me for a few moments, his mouth clamped shut and clearly trying to fight back the tears in his eyes. Then he took a slow, deliberate step to the side. With his gaze darting from me to the doorway and freedom, he inched his way toward the doorway and then broke into a clumsy run with the child still clutched to his chest. I listened to the sound of his footsteps long after he left the mansion into the night.
It was something I did not give much thought to at the time, but which I continually revisited in the years that followed. How had I heard the child’s breathing and heartbeat amidst the frenzy of the bloodlust? But it had made me stop. I stood completely still now and desperately fought against the bloodlust. I had already killed hundreds, and drank and drank and drank. But I still wasn’t sated. If anything, the more I drank, the more blood I yearned for.
I’d had my vengeance, enough blood had been shed. I had to leave before I was drawn back into the crimson snare. But then another sound came to me. It wasn’t those of the ones who hid in closets, or underneath beds, hoping I wouldn’t be able to find them. This one was a deliberate and distinct sound. It was the clink of glass against glass and then a muted thud. I knew immediately who had made the sound. I disappeared into the either and entered the drawing room.
Kato hadn’t bothered to run, but was sitting at the table in the drawing room, a glass of wine in his hand. When I entered, he merely downed the glass and set it down. His thoughts were calm and he only appeared to be concerned about the fact that he’d fulfilled a long sought after wish; to be able to sit at his master’s table and drink his master’s favourite wine, and pretend, if only for a few brief moments, that he was the master of the house. His gaze was belligerent, but there was no trace of fear as his eyes met mine.
At least it will be quick, he thought to himself, and an image flittered briefly through his mind of a young male Negro, his naked body marked by sores and wounds that no human being should have ha
d to endure.
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” I hissed.
He merely regarded me coolly, that arrogance even in the face of death bringing a fresh wave of anger, especially since I remembered him bowing to Julia, that mocking smile on his lips.
It was my guilt that saved his life. His thoughts were laid bare before me and they were of Minny. He had been the one who informed Alden that she had tried to warn us. It was not something he had wanted to do, but he had known that Auria would have seen it the moment Julia and I were in her presence and it would have ensured an extremely torturous death for him and her. So he had told Alden in the hopes that her punishment, or death, would be swift. He hadn’t counted on me putting a stop to the whipping, an act that had instead led to a much worse fate for the girl. Even then he had taken a risk and left the relative safety of the slave quarters that night to go and leave food for her, but he was already sure she was dead by then.
So, no, I wouldn’t kill him. He didn’t even flinch when I reached for him, grasping him by the lapels. I moved into the ether and we became weightless.
Chapter 9
We arrived at the dried out well where I let Kato go. He fell to the ground and promptly got to his knees, irritation marking his face. Then he saw where I had brought him. He quickly got to his feet and raced to the well, anxiety working his features.
He began pulling up the barrel Minny had been shut in, seeming to have completely forgotten about me. I dipped into the ether and returned to the cotton field. Julia’s corpse lay exactly as I had left it. I felt tears fill my eyes as I stared at her. It seemed I still could not rid myself of the irrational hope she would miraculously come back to life.
I picked her up and took her with me into the ether. When I returned Kato had managed to bring the barrel out of the well and opened it. He said nothing when he saw me move out of the ether with Julia in my arms. I lay her on the grass a short distance from him and stroked her face. When I faced Kato, he was staring at me with something akin to pity. He quickly returned to his task and lifted the half-naked girl out of the barrel and laid her on the grass.
The wounds she had sustained from the whipping had been left unattended. Some had crusted over, but blood still seeped from her back. She did not stir, although she was still alive—barely. I took a step back as the scent of her blood filled my nostrils, calling to the demon within. How could I want more after all I had drunk?
“She ain’t gonna make it,” Kato said, looking deeply shaken, the arrogance gone before the weight of the possible death of the young girl.
“Bring her to me—slowly.”
At first he glared at me in defiance. But after another glance at Minny, he did as I commanded.
I drew my nail across my wrist and blood gathered along the cut, but unlike human blood, it stubbornly refused to drip from the wound.
“What you gonna do?” Kato demanded as I knelt by her side.
I gently took her by the back of the head and brought her lips to my wrist. He made to push my wrist away. I shoved him aside, much harder than I had meant to, and he lost his balance and fell on his side. He scrambled to his knees and glared at me, although anxiety was alight in his green eyes as he glanced at Minny who had begun to stir. She started to struggle feebly when she saw the cut on my wrist, perhaps knowing what it was I meant to do.
“Naw,” she moaned.
I ignored her protest and forced her lips to my wrist, commanding her mentally to drink. When I released her, she merely stared up at me, bewilderment in her eyes as she wiped at her mouth. But she was already alert, strength and colour flowing into her eyes and face.
“You should be completely healed in a short while,” I said and took a step away from her, the scent of blood still stirring the frenzied lust for death that had seen me slay hundreds of people in less than an hour.
Kato was immediately at her side. He took off his coat and draped it over her shoulders, covering her nakedness. He helped her to her feet, and although he was still glaring at me, the anxiety was gone and his thoughts revealed no arrogance, only a relief and gratitude that he never would have uttered.
Minny faced me. She stared hard at me in confusion, her thoughts lingering on the blood staining my face and clothes. Before the confusion could clear and be replaced with horror at what the blood on my face and clothing signified, I entered her mind and altered what she saw so the blood on my person disappeared.
“You’s one of them now,” she said eventually.
I nodded.
“What ‘bout...”
She did not need to finish the question, for the answer could be found lying a short distance from her. She pulled away from Kato and moved to Julia’s corpse. Kato followed close behind. It was a few moments before I could join them. I looked on in silence as she knelt before the corpse.
“Oh Lawd!” she breathed.
It was all she said, but her thoughts and emotions came to me, making me wish I was far, far away from them. She was focusing on that singular moment when Julia grasped her hand. She had observed none of the disdain other whites showed at a Negroes touch, just that of one human being to another, and the kindness and concern she had shown at Minny’s apparent distress. She was genuinely aggrieved by Julia’s death—something that surprised me, especially since we were probably the only two people on this Earth who would truly mourn her passing, for there were very few people in Julia’s short life that had ever known her true worth. This slave had seen it immediately.
I again marvelled at how wrong I had been about these Negroes. I did not need these supernatural abilities to see what everyone else chose not to see, that they were just like us whites, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Yet they were viewed as no more than cattle.
“When is you gonna bury her?” Minny asked when she got to her feet. She looked alarmed when I didn’t answer. “You is gonna bury her, ain’t you? You gots to bury her, you can’t let her—”
“Minny!” Kato murmured in warning.
She glanced at him and was silent for a few moments before she met my gaze again.
“You ain’t never gonna be at peace now,” she said gently. “But your wife can. You gots to bury her.”
I stared down at Julia. I had lost so much in just a matter of days and soon I wouldn’t even have this corpse.
I met Minny’s gaze and nodded, surprised yet again when she breathed a sigh of relief. I couldn’t really understand why she seemed to care so much, not only about Julia, but about me.
“I can take you away from here. If you tell me—”
“That’s mighty kind of you,” Kato began, the condescension back in his tone. “But we be just fine by ourselves.”
I stared at him, leafing through his thoughts and memories as if I were flicking through the pages of a book.
“The river,” I said after a few moments. “You stay here,” I directed at Minny. “I will take Kato back so he can retrieve whatever possessions you wish to take with you and anything else of value you come across.”
I looked directly at Kato. I will take you as far as the river. Then you’ll take Minny and get as far away as you can. Only then may you tell her what I’ve done and that they are all dead.
His face hardened. I ain’t never gonna tells her. Like she says, you and I ain’t never gonna have no peace. But at least she can if I tells her they’s all got away like we has.
I knew then that I could leave her with him and he would care for her and never leave her side. As I moved toward him, I noticed something glinting in the grass. I moved to it and picked it up. It was a gold chain with a cross.
“This must be yours.” I held it out to Minny.
Instead of reaching for the cross, she merely stared at me in awe whilst Kato looked on in fear.
“What is it?” I asked.
When Minny spoke, she sounded breathless.
“You can touch the crucifix. The others weren’t able to touch no crucifix. They could control us and make us
take it off, but they couldn’t touch it nor bear to look at it, neither.”
She moved closer to me, showing absolutely no fear. I took a step back from her.
“It was the onliest thing that they couldn’t touch. A crucifix,” she said.
I didn’t understand why a small smile had lit up her face, or why Kato looked anything but happy about this latest development. I held the chain out to her again. She shook her head, again closing the space between us.
“Don’t you see?” she said, placing her hand against my arm. “Them creatures never could touch no crucifix ‘cause they’s evil. But you can, so there’s hope for you. There’s hope.”
I stared at the crucifix, something that had been a dear part of my life for as long as I could remember.
“I want you to keep it,” she said. “Hold on to it and keep remembering that you ain’t lost to the Lawd.”
Her thoughts, and the sincerity they revealed, made me place the chain around my neck.
With an anguished last glance at Julia’s corpse, I took Kato by the arm and we disappeared.
When we returned with clothing and money he found at the mansion, Minny was kneeling by Julia’s corpse, apparently praying. It was a sight that tore at my soul and I was eager to get them away from the plantation, knowing I would never have to lay eyes on them again.
When I returned to the plantation, it had stopped raining and the place was completely deserted. Everyone who could escape had left long ago and only the dead and the darkness remained. I returned to the mansion and took off the clothing Emory had given me. Then I put on my old clothes, carefully arranging the white necktie against my coat. The very act of putting on the clothing soothed my tortured soul even though I knew that wearing them was sacrilege.
I spent the rest of the night burning everything: the cotton field with its countless dead, the mansion, and the slave quarters. I watched it all burn, wishing I could burn away the memories of the last few days along with the pain that was now a permanent resident in my soul. I returned to Julia.
