Dangerous Illusions

Chapter 3

Once it was only the light of the candles she knelt down cross-legged and placed the silver chain with the crystal ball attached to one end over the middle of the pentagram and started chanting in Latin calling upon the strength of her ancestors to show her the path to save the life of the child. The third time she chanted the same thing a bit louder the candles blew off with a gush of wind coming inside the room and Donald shrieked out in an otherworldly voice making her jump in her place and Rachel did the same.

The make-shift scrying tool in her hand started swinging violently and then pulled her hand towards the frame where Donald’s father was standing with a fishing rod over his shoulder. The crystal ball swung even harder and cracked the framed of the picture. The wind stopped as suddenly as it had started and the candles lighted up again. Donald on the other hand had fallen back and was groaning and frothing at mouth. Rachel was shaking like a leaf seeing everything and Leila took a little salt in her hand and whispered again the protection spell and threw it on Donald, and the frothing stopped immediately.

“Rachel, I hope that you have bath-tub,” said Leila as she looked at the older woman and she nodded,” take Don to the bath and soak him in the water, after dumping the contents of this bottle in the water.”

Rachel gingerly took the bottle from her hand and proceeded to do as instructed. Once they left the room Leila started pacing up and down taking the cracked picture in her hand. There was something connected to the life of his father which had led to this level of grudge.

Leila closed her eyes with the picture in her hand and said softly,” Grandmother, I know I made a lot of mistakes but I need your help now…the life of an innocent boy is at stake…please help me…I don’t know what to do…”

As a tear rolled down her eye, she could hear her Grandmother clearly speaking,” Open your mind girlie….let them in..”

No sooner than she heard the words, Leila could see an image of Donald’s father, much younger, standing in a room screaming at a girl..it shifted away and she could see the girl giving birth to a child at the back of an alley with no one to help her, bleeding and crying out…again showing the mother dying in a dark dirty attic with a young girl holding her hand. Suddenly the girl looked up and looked at Leila and smiled. It was not an innocent child’s beautiful smile…it was pure evil. Leila gasped out and started coughing as she dropped the frame from her hand.

Rachel came out hearing her sound and saw her all flushed and gasping for breath like a fish out of water. Once she had recovered Leila looked up at Rachel and said,” Do not let him up until the water turns all black. Your son is suffering for the sins of his father and there is nothing I can do unless the wrong that had been done against her is corrected.”

Rachel looked at her stupefied as Leila continued,” Ask your husband about the girl he had dumped after making her pregnant and ask him about what happened to the child. You cannot live in peace while she has suffered her entire life for his decision. Call me when you are done and I shall tell you what to do next and take my dues.”

Leila took her things in her tote-bag and left the apartment as she kept on looking behind, checking if anyone was following her.

But nothing wrong happened in the next three days except a nagging feeling at the back of her mind that she might be the reason for an impending divorce in a happy family. She was still at her shift when her mobile rang. It was Rachel Mendoza.

“Hello Rachel? Can I call you back in…” Leila had started but could not finish her sentence.

“You need to come down here as soon as possible. I owe you a lot Leila, and I am not sure how to end this. Please reach as soon as possible,” said the woman on the other end.

“Okay…I shall be there,” replied Leila as the call was disconnected. She finished her shift and started towards the apartment looking at the street-lamps at intervals which were once coated with green paints now showed the chipped grey undercoat. Leila stepped inside the apartment door which was already open and heard the bickering between the man and woman while Donald sat there without any reaction.

As soon as they saw Leila both of them went silent. Looking at Rachel Leila knew that she had got her texts.

“Have you decided what you want to do?” asked Leila as she kept her bag on the table. Rachel nodded her head and handed her a piece of paper. Leila opened the folds gingerly and read the contents, and smiled. She gave Rachel a pin from her bracelet and asked her to drip a drop of her blood on the paper and let it dry.

“How can you allow such a bumbling moron in our house? She is clearly feeding you lies and giving you crap and you are believing her bull-s**t. I am done with all this nonsense and you, woman, get out of my house this instant,” said the man, who was Donald’s father. Leila looked at him in the eyes and stepped up towards him without removing her gaze. When she was close enough, a slap landed tightly on the cheek of the man with the sound echoing all over the silent apartment. Rachel gave her the paper back and Leila dropped it inside her bag as the man plopped on the couch.

Leila took out two mirrors from her bag and placed them on the table keeping them at angles where Donald’s reflection corresponded with the other mirror which reflected back at his father.

“A child always suffers for the sins of his or her father, so it has been for centuries but not anymore. You are a lousy man and even a worse father who does not deserve to bear the fruits of his children’s success. Lucky for you, your first-borne child has done more than enough to make it happen,” said Leila as she finished drawing the pentagram on the table. Rachel did not say a word as Leila spoke and stood behind her son.

“But what are you doing to me? Why are you even doing this to me? What are trying to? Are you going to kill me?” asked Ronald, the perpetrator whose neglect and indecisiveness had started this whole fiasco in the first place.

Leila smiled at his helpless feeling and said,”What you have done to the mother of that child when she was just a teen and what pains she had to undergo paying for your folly all her short life, for that death is a very quick punishment and entirely undesirable. I might have some control of natural elements more than normal folks but whether you live or die is not my decision at all. That is to be decided by someone else.”

“But you cannot do this to me. I have a family, to look after. I promise I am going to atone for whatever I have done. I am going to bring her back and I shall be the best father that she will ever see. Just don’t do this to me,” pleaded the man who was on his knees, sobbing out like a repentant man but Leila knew better than to fall for his act.

“Your daughter always wanted a family and now thanks to you, she has one. Unfortunately, you see Ronald, everything has a price. The curse that has been placed on your son cannot be taken back by Mother Earth. It has been already cast and now it will need a life to balance the darkness that has been spreading through Ronald’s veins. Isn’t that right Azura?” asked Leila, in a loud voice and a young girl entered the house.

Ronald gasped at her. She had dirty blonde hair which was tousled and she wore handed down clothes which were ill-fitting for her but her eyes were dark, with hatred and her smile, well let’s just say, her smile could freeze hell over twice.

“She is right Daddy!! Someone has to pay for the life of my mother, her pain needs to be suffered,” said Azura, the girl in a sing-song voice of a child making it even more horrifying to hear.

After that it was just a matter of moments to transfer the curse from Donald to the body of his father. When it was over Leila looked at Rachel and Azura and smiled. Ronald had lost his consciousness and Donald was looking at all of them trying to wrap his head around what had just happened.

“Congratulations Rachel. Your son is now safe. Your husband has been successfully hexed.”

“I cannot thank you enough for doing this Leila!! And you have given me another daughter, what could I have asked for more?” asked Rachel as she smiled at the young girl.

“Azura, I know that life has been hard for you but this is a second chance you are getting at everything that should have been yours from the beginning, so make no mistake and use this in a better way. And Rachel, don’t worry about Ronald, his death is gonna be absolutely accidental which would mean that you are gonna get his insurance money for sure!!” said Leila as Rachel handed over a thick envelope in her direction.

Azura came closer to Leila and said,” I am really grateful for what you did for me. If you need me any time you just need to call upon me, you know that right?”

Leila took the envelope, smiled at Azura and gave another her another charm which she had made for both of them. After all one could not be too reluctant with a sorceress at their home, could they?

Once she left the building Leila, was quite satisfied with herself. Just at the moment as she skipped over a pothole like she used to do in childhood she felt that the money was not that important than the justice she had wrought on Donald. If seen as a whole then it was not bad for a week’s work, right?

In the serenade of the black, the stars seemed like a choir from the church of her Grandmama; they were lights that sing in infinite patterns. Sometimes eyes need music, and the darker the night the sweeter the song, and Leila smiled as she took out her phone and called her Grandmother back home.