"I don't want to go there, mama." I know you are probably
wondering why? My grandparents were different and not in a good way. I feared
them too much.
"You have no say."
"I'm not going with you!"
I yelled at her.
She stopped what she was doing and turned to look at me as
if she couldn't believe that I yelled at her, and she slapped me really hard.
"Do not raise your voice on me you cursed child!" she
snapped.
My body shook with sobs as I held onto my cheek where she
had hit me. It stung.
"I know that they can cure you of your hallucinations, I
just know it. They're the right people to go to at this juncture. I can't sit
back and watch my only child go crazy, thinking that she hears and sees the
devil."
I wanted to tell her that I wasn't hallucinating, but I knew
that it was only going to earn me another slap, so I kept mute.
Her watery grey eyes stared at me hard, daring me to talk.
"It's not up for a debate as you already know. Go into your
room and pack clothes that would last you for two weeks. Be out in ten minutes,
we'll be leaving then."
Without saying a word in response to her, I turned on my
heels and walked to my room. I felt numb. I hadn't seen my paternal
grandparents for over ten years. I last saw them during my father's funeral.
They hadn't even shed a tear. I had been just nine then. I remember very
clearly that day like it was just yesterday. Grandma had looked me in the eyes
with her stony blue ones and said 'She looks just like him, I pray she doesn't
turn out to be a failure like he was; neglecting home and tradition.' She had
kissed the rosary in her hand, and walked away from me. Before that time, I had
only ever met them once when I was four. Daddy didn't like taking me to them.
They gave me the chills, grandma especially, but now mom was taking me there.
What if she locked me in a closet again for days without
food just to cast the evil spirits inside me out?
Inside the car as mom drove, an uncomfortable silence
ensued.
We lived in Manhattan, and it was going to be one hell of a
long and uncomfortable ride to Albany. It was roughly a two hour and forty five
minutes ride.
As for the devil, I had started to hear and feel him right
from the moment I hit puberty at fourteen. It hadn't been so bad and frequent
in the beginning, but it was like as time grew, the more attached to me he
became. The more frequently he came to me.
"I'm…" Mom started to say, but she trailed off, her hand
tightening around the steering wheel.
"I'm sorry that I hit you back there," she spared me a
glance. I wasn't moved by her apology. She always apologized whenever she hit
me, but she never stopped hitting me if I moved outta line.
"I've just been so stressed lately."
She was always stressed. Always.
"Aren't you going to say anything?" she asked.
"What do you want me to say, mama?" I murmured as I turned
my head to stare out the window.
"I'm apologizing here even if I'm not at fault! The least
you could do is acknowledge it." I could feel her glaring eyes on me for a
short while.
"Okay. I acknowledge it." I whispered.
"You're unbelievable." She fumed, but I was no longer
listening to her, the devil had come again. My eyes suddenly grew too heavy for
me to keep open, and I was forced into slumber.
"Leticia." It was like a distant whisper. I was standing
under the spotlight, darkness surrounded me, and it felt like slowly, it was
closing in on me.
"Hello?" I called out as the panic kicked. I had been in the
vehicle with my mom a second ago, hadn't I?
"Leticia?" I heard that whisper once again. I couldn't make
out whose voice it was, neither could I pin point where it was coming from.
Then suddenly in the darkness, I saw a silhouette advance
towards me. I couldn't make out much, all I could see was that whoever it may
be was tall.
Fear gripped at my heart when that feeling came over me all
over again. It was the same feeling I got whenever he was close. The same one
that choked me with fear.
"Who are you?" I whispered in fear as I inched backwards. The
closer the silhouette got, the clearer I could make out the figure, but I still
could not see his face.
"You are mine, Leticia. You can't run, neither can you hide,
I'll always find you." He said in an eerily calm tone of voice while I moved
backwards. Wherever I moved, the light followed me, but the darkness didn't
seize to surround me.
"Wh-who a-re yo-u?"
"Draven."
My eyes suddenly flew open at the loud yell of my name and
the rough shake of my shoulders. Mom stared at me with wide eyes, and it took
me a while to realize where we were. We were in a gas station.
I looked back at her to see her staring at me oddly. I was
used to that look.
"I want to get gas, you have five minutes to do whatever the
hell it is that you want to do, but once it's five minutes, I want you back
here."
I nodded frantically and alighted from the car almost
immediately, hurrying into the store.
**
I rubbed my sweaty hands together as I stood behind my mum, waiting for my grandparents to answer the door.
The door was abruptly pulled open, and the first thing I noticed in my grandmother were her stony blue eyes and wrinkled face.