My nostrils flared as I tried to breathe. Pastor Hughes was going to put the snake on me. I didn’t want the snake on me. I didn’t want to be bit.
The hold on my wrists and arms tightened. I closed my eyes as the Pastor placed the snake on my stomach. The rattling of the snake's tail got louder and louder in my ears. I could feel its cool body begin to slither. Pastor Hughes began to pray, Elder Paul joining in. And so did he.
But I kept my eyes shut. I kept my eyes shut and hoped that the snake didn’t strike. Hoped that I didn’t have the flames in my blood. That evil didn’t run in my veins.
As the snake moved down my legs, I heard a loud hiss and a sharp pain sliced through my thigh.
I screamed out in pain, my teeth gritting together. Then, suddenly, the snake was taken from my body. I could feel his hands shaking as he held down my wrists.
I opened my eyes, to see him staring at the wound on my leg. His eyes looked into mine. I didn’t understand what his look meant. I was tired. I was in pain, and my eyes began to close.
But I could still hear voices. I could hear him, Pastor Hughes and Elder Paul talking. “Something’s living within him, Michael. Something evil runs in his veins. An evil we must exorcize.”
I heard his choked bellow. And all I could think was that there were flames in my blood. Flames I had to get out. But they were holding me down. I couldn’t get to the flames. I needed to get them out of my blood. Cut them out of my blood. But I couldn’t get free.
Darkness came and took me.
When I woke, I was in a dark room, dirt on the floor and walls. My head throbbed, my thighs hurt, but I couldn’t feel half of my body.
Then I remembered…
And I could feel the flames. I could feel the flames under my skin. Flames I needed to get out.
I heard footsteps above me. Heavy footsteps. I could hear Mama crying, begging him not to do something. I could hear my baby brother crying. His loud screams hurt my head.
The footsteps stopped right above me. My body began to shake. Suddenly, a hatch above me opened, the bright light shining in where I was laid, making me flinch. Then he jumped down beside me. He was holding a belt.
I looked into his eyes as he stepped forward. I remember the pain. Remember the pain, the number eleven… and the flames… the invisible flames pouring out with my blood…
A wooden ceiling came back into view and I was in the light. But I was tied down. My wrists and ankles were tied down. Men came in and out of a door to my left. Men that were going to hurt me.
Those same men…
They said things to me, but I couldn’t hear them over the screaming, over the sound of the flames in my blood. I thrashed, needing the ties to be broken, when the door to my left opened again. It was one of them. One of them that tied me down. One of the fuckers I wanted to kill.
The noises of screams, shouts and banging on doors were too much. Then I heard a voice call, “I will not let you hurt him. Please… just let me calm him. Let me calm his rage.”
I froze, my arching back flattening on whatever I was laid. The sound of rushing blood whooshed through my ears, but the person in the room with me now was new… the voice… their voice made the screaming in my head stop…
I panted hard, my eyes staring at the ceiling. Then I heard a cry and my head turned to the side. The floor. On the floor was a woman. A small woman, with her arms around her knees. My blurred eyes blinked fast and I fought to see, my stomach clenching at who she could be.
Black hair… small body… her hands, small hands…
Then I saw the eyes. Green eyes. The pulse in my wrist and neck raced on seeing those green eyes. And the flames calmed. The fire was still there, burning under my muscles. Evil still infused my body, but I could breathe. I panted. I sweated. But I could breathe. When I looked at her, I could breathe.