The third stage has begun. The enchantment had begun to take root inside the very core of his brain. On it's way to drain out every ounce of willpower he could possibly muster. Travis realizes he been enchanted. He'd failed to realize this early on and so the whole–pour a full cap or a bottle of salt blessed by an Afrodite priest into your open mouth. Dip your head in blessed water for a minute. Nothing in mind but a firm resolution to put the witch to shame; if they know shame of any sort. Raising your head from the water, like an incantation, you chant: ''No divination, no enchantment against Jacob shall come to pass." Dip your bloody head one more time in water and the enchantment resolve will weaken and slowly disappear— was wasted on him, if any of it were true.
This realization is a tough pill for him to swallow as he knows none have lived to tell the end of this. His whole life pathway laid out before him has been distorted and now it's time to dance to the beat of the drummer. It is a case of 'I say dance, they say how high.' He reflects on suicide but knows he had neither the shame nor the mind to go through with it. It was easier to breath in, more natural, even when knowing that the end is near. And this end could be torturous. He thoughts went out to the little things he'd failed to accomplish, his little dreams. The mountain of fear which he'd lived by and had held him captive from accomplishing these dreams.
Travis lute coming to terms with his fate breaks down in tears and starts wailing at his moderately funished apartment. In a blink of an eye, everything has changed for him. One moment, he was the life of a party, essentially trying to live his life. What once was gone and so Travis lute is falling into an unimaginable nightmare he cannot control.
We go back to when Travis was twelve years old and lived with his father. His mother having died during his second year of infancy. Muna lute, his father seemingly carries a burden on his shoulders. A double face man. Finding any excuse, any little mistake committed by the boy, he takes out his accumulated anger on Travis. This continued for years until Travis acquires boldness. The courage to stand up to his father. The courage to fight back. His audacity did not turn as expected. He is beaten half to death. Later during the night, he drags his worn out body like a sack to his room; his safety net, the night ahead was long and tortured as his tears were.
*****
She was sitting on her windowstill, quiet and with a faraway gaze that reached the skies. She was like a picture. A picture of the essence of this world. The kind that Leonardo da Vinci would have splashed different paint in order to capture. Under a clouded sky marred by this frustrating rain shower, he was seeing a ray of sunlight. He thought her an angel. Travis stared directly at this woman trying to gauge where she fits in his whole situation. He had climbed a hill following the directions splashed out in his head. The girl he was looking at was pretty; that was actually the biggest understatement of the century. Another word, no words should be formed in order to place her where she belongs.
As she sat on her windowstill, eyes gazing towards the clouds, lips upturned in a frown, Travis gazed. Like a creep he has become at that particular moment, his eyes never left her face. Taking in all her features. The edges to her face was a like a new addictive drug; the kind that no therapy, no psychiatric hospital could quench that urge to keep coming back for just a sight. He sounded like an old pervert, deprived from the touch of women for a long time– but he knew, he knew, that a hundred women could surround him this moment, all naked and his eyes won't budge from that window. She just had this softness on her face right now, it was endearingly. Fuck, she was staring back.
This was Jovic Arcada, who noticing Travis, invites him inside seeing the telltale signs of enchantment on him. Invitation was obeyed and as a good host, introduction were made. Travis consumed by anger on seeing that the host was indeed the witch tries to lash his way out of with threats, but it all fell apart.
Travis finds himself in a room, a bulb overhead. Bound to a chair inside a simple interrogation room. Jovic came into the room, sitting opposite him and like all interrogation room works, began questioning him. She asked his name, his whereabouts, the club he occasionally frequented. All these questions Travis felt internally bound to answer. He in turn demanded to know what he had done wrong but it was not about the wrong he'd committed but about being in the right place at the wrong time.
He kept faith. Thinking there was a little chance she will look with pity at him and set him free, so he begs. With no shame, he begged. It was like pouring water on a stone. She seem to mock him further while he begged by coming up to his face and whispering a no.
This triggers him and he restores to violence, headbutting her savagely. Jovic dropped to the floor and Travis saw an open door. Tugging at the magic binding him to the chair.
Jovic being a tough nut stood back up. Her piercing eyes overwhelming Travis with a mountain of fear and putting a stop to his near escape. She came up to him and hung a hit to his face that made him pallid.
The door swung in and a shadow plastered itself against the entrance.
"Cobly, I have a job for you."