Kiss Me, Curse Me - By Kate Shay Page 0,47

woman screamed. I didn’t want to know, but I just had to for some reason. I was drawn to find out. There was an energy pulling me there. I witnessed a murder. There was blood, there were animals, there were people chanting, calling . . . writhing. It was voodoo. You heard of it?”

They shook their heads. Coreen looked scared as she listened and watched him cut the stitches one by one, starting low and moving up her thigh.

“I saw them kill this black woman, slit her throat, but she stood there just as alive as you and me, just as we sit here now. She was a puppet for something evil. It was not of this world, even though the blood poured from her neck. She’d just laughed a silent laugh and smiled as she danced among them.”

“She obviously wasn’t dead then, was she?” said Ahanu sarcastically, taking Coreen’s hand.

“I left that place. I ran back the way I’d come, back out the swamp, but they heard me. They followed after me, screaming for the chase, and they caught me.”

Coreen jumped as he cut the last stitch. “What’d you do?” “There was nothing I could do. They made me watch, made me join in, made me dance, made me eat and drink things, you couldn’t imagine. The only way I escaped was that their party ended and they finally slept. That woman died. They laid me next to her. They made me watch as her mouth hung open and the blood dried down the front of her white dress. She was young—a virgin sacrifice.”

“I don’t want to hear anymore.” Coreen shook her head. “You have no idea what I’ve been through, where I’ve been. Ahanu saved me.” She looked to her fiancé.

“Whatever you took to get to this place now—whatever you did—there will be a price to pay,” said Roy. “There will be a price. Listen to me now.”

“She’ll be fine,” Ahanu stood now, getting real close to Roy, right up to his face. The two of them were the same height, eye to eye. “I know what I’m doing.”

“No, I don’t think you do. It’s written all over your face. You said you were going to burn someone. Who are you going to burn? I don’t believe it was just some animal that crawled out of here, and by the looks of this shanty, I don’t believe that we are dealing with something ordinary. Now tell me. I can’t just let someone who almost just died leave this place to go God-knows-where. God forgives once, but twice is not guaranteed.”

Ahanu closed his eyes and rubbed his face, knowing that the Southerner was right on some level. “It’s a Shaman. He tried to kill us. He’s gone off through the woods.”

“Why’d he try to kill you?”

“This town. It’s cursed, okay? The whole town is going down if we don’t stop him. Terrible things are going to happen, if they haven’t already. We have to go.”

“At least leave her behind. I’ll go with you.”

“No. We’re not separating, not for a second. We’ve been apart too long as it is. She comes with us.”

Coreen nodded in agreement, and Roy knew there’d be no reasoning with the two young lovers, so off they went.

***

“What do you mean Singapore is dead?” Betty strained to see in her dark office under the candlelight—the power was out. Having the place fitted with dark wood and black leather didn’t help any. “She can’t be dead. She just brought me this coffee.” Betty lifted the mug up.

Raska stood in her orange, silk chapan robe, blonde hair awry, black eye makeup streaming down her red face. The tears fell down her face and over her hands, which she held at her throat, as if in great discomfort. Betty moved out from behind the heavy, Egyptian antique desk, “Oh my God. You’re not kidding. Where is she?”

Falling to her knees, Raska pointed toward the kitchen, before burying her head in her hands, sobbing miserably.

“What the hell is going on?” Betty burst through the swinging doors to see her Singapore, skin drained of all color. She was so white; she looked like a dead geisha upon the floor. Betty rolled the partially nude girl over to see blue lips instead of the geisha red.

“Raska. Get in here! I need to know what happened. Get me something to cover her up. What is she doing down here in her pleasant-wear?” Fumbling for anything, something, Betty covered up the dead girl’s lower