"Mama!" Torielle cried. In all honesty, she thought if she did a good thing, the good would come back to her. Or… maybe her mother would change her attitude. That was a lot of hope behind that thought. But now it made a little bite of sense.
Torielle looked at the paper puppet. It's head twisted, in a cartoonish voice. It had candy for eyes and it's head moved around as if it was looking at her.
It spoke in a broken tone. "Get.Fuck.Out."
The paper puppet stretched inside Davea. She gagged. Chava rose her left hand above Davea. Words wrapped around her palm. "Claim." the words bounced off her hand and circled around her fingers. Davea's back arched, she trembled. "You can't take… my soul."
"The fuck I can…"
The puppet settled inside her body. She could feel it twist and fold. She coughed, the cough turned into hitched breathing. Her ribs popped, Davea wanted to scream but tears replaced any noise.
She picked up the sound of sniggering and tee-hees. "I got her stomach," the paper puppet smirked, hugging Chava. "You knew before hand. You aren't supposed to let the secret out."
More of her bones broke, her throat was on fire. Her leg bruised and twitched. Her left limb twisted right. Chava hollered, breaking the glass sitting on the kitchen counter. Her right arm folded three ways, blood spilled all over the floor. Davea's neck bent back. Her soul was free to see her suffer.
"Ma…" Torielle could have ran but she stared. The puppet turned her into a paper boat. The devil thing turned her into fucking origami.
She was a boat.
She was black.
She was origami.
The paper boat laid in fluid. Torielle had to blink. She couldn't even ask questions. Her mother just became fucking paper.
Chava took hold of Davea's soul. She took her two fingers and commanded the boat to unfold. As it came undone. Torielle saw her mother's flat boat pressed and crumbled. "Sad."
"What are you doing!" Torielle shouted. "Who are you!"
"You hear that?" she lifted her head. "Leave a space here."
"I'll lay it on the body."
"What if she doesn't touch it?"
"I'll put it over the door. Like a film."
She clapped her hands together. The area around her zoomed in and out. Speeding up and slowing down. Torielle blinked. Cedrica sat on the bed with her legs crossed. "What the fuck?" she muttered with her mouth open. She looked at the door then at Torielle.
"Cece…"
"Nigga, what in gluten free candy--"
Torielle rolled her eyes. "You didn't hear me downstairs?"
"I've been up here."
"Did you put the balloons on the stairs?"
"In my room." she sneered.
"Did you hear the gunshot?"
"NO!" Cedrica hopped off the bed. "Stop being a crackhead!"
"I know how mom died!"
Cedrica's lips slacked. She didn't understand and in her eyes Torielle had lost it. Mr. Ingram died and she had more time to see. Cedrica came up with a new rule in her mind.
Don't hang with the dead.
"Cece, mama got shot." said Torielle. "A woman came in the house and shot her."
She didn't know how to respond to that. Torielle marched towards her, "A woman came in the house, she left like--a clue for me."
"Just say you hired an assassin."
Torielle's brow crinkled, "You're adopted!"
"So?" Cece exclaimed. "You're acting weird!"
"I'm psychic!" she grabbed her collar and shook her. "Fuck it! You're Shiloh's daughter, whoever that is."
"You didn't even bring the suitcase!"
"Cause the house was full of balloons."
Cedrica started to smirk, the corner of her mouth twitching. "You goofy as hell." Cedrica went pass her and grabbed the suitcase. She brought it upstairs again after locking the door and put it in the middle of the floor. She opened it up and the contents were still there.
"What do we do with a jar of blood?"
"Drink it?" Torielle's eyes lowered. "That's sick…" her sister groaned.
"Well I sound fucking stupid don't I?"
"Yes…" Cedrica looked inside the case; a wand, a feather, three photos, teeth, and blood. "What did Calvin say?"
"We some thots."
"I'm thirteen…" Cedrica complained. "Too bad we don't have a set of instructions."
Torielle came to the suitcase and peered inside. "What's that under the jar?"
Cedrica picked up the jar and under it was a white letter. She set the jar beside her and picked up the note.
Hello.
My name is Hatch.
Here is What you need to do.
Please follow accordingly.
These are materials to make your own Devil Thing. They will help you for your path.
You need salt. I didn't add it to the box as your father did not say to.
You need the outline of a human body. You can lay on the floor and trace the body with salt.
There is no particular order but please be aware depending how you lay the items out. It will be the position of the limbs or other.
The wings should always go the back but it depends on you.
Give it teeth.
Use the wand as you see fit.
The photos are for the face.
This being is unwelcomed, a reflection of me
An air from me, absent of glory
Rose from damnatory, slumbered on a feathered bed
"This is creepy." Cedrica looked at the suitcase again then at Torielle. "Go down stairs and get some salt." She stood up. "It says we have to make something."
"Our 'father' sent us a damn arts and crafts kit?"
"Yes and after that I need you to lay on the floor."
Torielle's lips contorted. She begrudgingly went downstairs but pause as she went five steps down. Her lip trembled.
Davea stood right up. Her arms by her side and eyes fixed on. She heard chattering, as she looked closer. Davea's lips were moving. "Mama?"
She went back up the steps and the body hovered above the floor. "Mama?"
Teeth chattered and lips parted. An aura over her body, undulated, waving like smoke. The body disappeared and went pass Torielle. She flung her arms in the air. Torielle ran back to the room but she went down the stairs face first, breaking her nose.
An entity yanked her ankles, she couldn't resist it. "Cece!" she shrieked. "Cedrica!" Davea flung Torielle towards the livingroom. The left corner of her lips lifted.
Torielle pressed her back against the wall. "Cedrica!" she wailed. "Obayifo!" she echoed. "What the fuck!"
Davea lent out her arm. "Body." her neck bent. "For the soul…"
"Not me…" she bolted towards the kitchen. "BREAK!" the words left her throat, aiming at the upper wall above the kitchen entrance.
The wall came down blocking the path. Davea sped behind Torielle, she hoisted the child up by her collar. "Mama!"
Upstairs Cedrica opened the jar of blood. Wasn't there a letter telling her to drink it?
She dipped her pinky in the jar. "Dear God, as I lay down to sleep. Let me wake up in the glory of the sun and the air in my lungs."
Cedrica had died before. She wasn't that afraid to die again. Or at least in her head.
She brought her pinky to her lips. She licked the blood and went for a second dip. She suced the blood from her finger. "You know… It's not that nasty."
What about infections?
Cedrica brought the jar to her lips and tilted back. It was thin, warm, with some blobs of blood. It was a bit jarring when she felt a clump of blood on her tongue. She pulled the jar away from her. She nodded, "Well… I learned something."
She sniffed the jar, not understanding why. Cedrica put the jar in the suitcase.
She felt fine. Her tongue poked her cheeks still tasting the blood. She blinked and sat on floor with her hands on her knees.
She felt a bit tired.
What if she died right then like a heartattack just came with a large fuck you? That didn't concern her. What if she did it again?
Downstairs Torielle struggled. Cedrica couldn't hear. Davea forced Torielle to the ground face first and scratched into her back a circle. "Give it to me!" she hissed. Torielle placed her hands on the floor and pushed up. Davea held her by her head. She snarled and spit, she went for her neck. "Get off me bitch!" Davea bit her shoulder, Torielle could feel it. Her blood collecting in her shoulder, being sucked up. "Cedrica!"
Again, Cedrica was upstairs. She sat on the carpet and stretched her legs out. "Where is that girl? All I asked was salt," she looked behind her. Facing back she looked at the jar of blood. "I am nasty?"
She picked it up and opened it again, she smelled the jar. It didn't change anything. She licked her lips and tipped the jar into her mouth. The blood was given time to set.
These large clumps were becoming her favorite. She didn't drink it all and put the lid on the jar leaving a good two ounces. She stirred the jar, watching the blood swirl. A clump was inside, she was tempted to drink it. "I need a spoon."
She got up from the floor and headed to the door. Downstairs, once more, Torielle cried in pain, the vampire had now bit the back of her neck holding her down by her hair. Cedrica came downstairs, the livingroom was a mess. A set of boxes in the far left corner next to the window. The same old worn wooden floors with the beige stripes under the coffee table. The carpet that was cut in half and Davea was set on connecting the two pieces into a sloppy rugged walk way to the living room. Not to mention the hole in the wall facing the doorway. But she never saw the rat, so was the hole even a hole.
She said it wasn't.
Davea always doted on Cedrica. "Be pretty, you have pretty hair that you can put in a ponytail. See, your ponytail is longer than Tori's. I have to get her weave." she told with pursed lips.
Torielle and her didn't understand but she definitely knew that Davea was always putting them against each other. She seemed to hate her.
Recalling some of the most vicious arguements between them.
One day, during Torielle's birthday. Davea gave her a box. Davea said, "I got you that toy you wanted."
Tori replied, "I never asked for a toy." She was around 10 at the time. Davea put the box in her lap. "Open it."
Torielle handed it back, "I don't want it."
"Take the goddamn box!" her right hand hit the bottom of the box, it toppled , the lid falling off to the side, and pieces of dog shit landed in her lap. "EW!" she stood up disgusted and horrified, her white tennis shoes stepped in shit. She balanced her left foot on her toes. "What the fuck is wrong with you!"
"Stop asking for shit!"
Cedrica was in the kitchen with a bowl of off brand ceral called Forest-Os. It was suppose to hold the smell of nature.
Just like that box.
Torielle ran upstairs. "Mama!" Cedrica called. "I'm pregnant."
"I know." Davea went into the kitchen. She laid her hand on Cedrica. "I know. Tomorrow we have to go to church."
"why?"
"So they can bless the child." she smiled.
Cedrica went in the drawers and grabbed a spoon. She contemplated for a minute if she wanted cereal. She reached for the box and fumbled it, wasting the bag and spilling nutrition.
"Goddamn it." Ceral scattered all over the floor. Was she going to sweep? No. Her name was Cedrica, Tori could. Davea could. Wait…
Along with ceral was a prescription bottle. 'Forlivi'
Cedrica Alexis Mccoy
No. 91140-3591
Take one pill a day for vampiric urges with water or food.
"This is for me?" she turned the bottle around. Forlivi, vampiric medication for blood addiction. "That's ironic. Ooo!" Cedrica took her spoon and headed up stairs with the bottle in hand. She sat on the floor and grabbed the jar.
She set the pills by her thigh and stirred the red contents in the jar. She licked the spoon and scooped up the wad of blood. She put the glob of blood in her mouth and for some reason decided to start chewing it. She shallowed the pieces, smacking her lips together. "In case I get like an allergic reaction." she opened the bottle and five pills came out.
"That's it?" she clicked her tongue. She popped it in her mouth and swallowed. Cedrica caught the pill in the back of her tongue and summoned saliva to push it down. Cedrica kept trying to summon spit into her mouth. She scooped blood from the jar and swallowed again. Her throat burned has the pill slid down. The glob shrunk and went down her throat with ease. "That was boring." She cough which in turn evolved into choking. Her stomach hurt, she coughed again. The urge to throw up came over her, she raced to the bathroom and hung over the toilet.
She gagged and her eyes watered. A flood of blood and stomach emptied into the toilet. She threw her back and tried to breathe slowly.
"Tori!" she begged.
But downstairs, Torielle could barely move. Davea punched in the head and choked her from behind her neck. Davea pressed Torielle's back where she scratched a circle and the ring lit up. She felt the pressure cover her, almost as if her back was being split open.
Davea's figure grew smaller. Torielle vision was hazy and she heard a gasping voice.
"Mine."