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“But...you said...”
“Nothing!” Zaiden was taken aback by the force of the word, which seemed to strike him hard in the chest. “I told you NOTHING,” Papa repeated, “because you have told me nothing.”
Zaiden raised his arms in front of him, palms facing the old man, hoping to defuse the tense situation. He didn’t want to react as he had with the old woman, possibly killing the priest. But his gun was tucked into the back of his jeans if need be.
Papa rose slowly and deliberately from his chair, one hand behind his back.
Zaiden’s gaze immediately focused on it.
Papa revealed an elaborately adorned ritual dagger. “The houngan who bestowed this upon me, could pierce a man’s heart before a bullet even left his gun. You’ll only discover if I possess the same skill if you act upon your thoughts.”
Zaiden realized there was only one way he would make it out of this house alive. Anxiously, he blurted out, “I killed someone, and the old lady hid the evidence that could put me away, in the item she sold to Ms. Martin. The person I killed was dealing meth...he deserved to die. I don’t want to harm anyone; I just don’t want to waste the rest of my life locked up for what I did.”
Papa slowly raised the dagger, allowing it to rest on Zaiden’s upper chest, just below his neck. “You will leave now,” he said firmly. “Tomorrow, Delmond will come to your place with the address. “Juliette est sacrée.”
Sacred?Zaiden was puzzled.Who is this Juliette?
“If you harm her, you will suffer extreme consequences. Retrieve what you need, only if she still has it, and then leave forever. Someone will always be watching you... someone will always be watching over Juliette. Go now.”
Papa lowered the dagger, and Zaiden stepped back.
“Delmond?” Zaiden wanted to know who this person was and whether he knew where Zaiden lived to give him Juliette’s address.
“Delmond,” Papa repeated. “Go now. He knows.”
A shudder ran up Zaiden’s spine. He turned slowly and walked toward the door, stepping outside and taking a deep breath, grateful that he still had the ability to do so.
* * *
As he slowly rode hisHarley back to his apartment, a lingering sense of being watched and followed plagued his thoughts. He wondered about this mysterious Delmond person. What did he look like? What would he bring him in the morning? Sleep evaded him throughout the night, his mind restless until the early hours when exhaustion finally overtook him.
Suddenly, a knocking at his door jolted him awake, his heart pounding in his chest. With cautious steps, he approached the door and asked, “Who is it?” Yet, no answer reached his ears. He leaned in, straining to listen, about to repeat his question when he noticed the envelope slipped beneath his door.
Quickly opening the door, Zaiden found no one in sight. Picking up the envelope, he scanned the area outside – deserted. Closing and locking the door behind him, he switched on the bedside light and gingerly opened the envelope. Inside, two trinkets and a note tumbled onto his bed.
One trinket was a familiar spirit charm. He wondered why Papa Samedi would give it to him. Such charms represented a tangible link between the living and the deceased, offering reassurance that the departed individual was at peace and watching over their loved one. “What the fuck,” Zaiden muttered. “I don’t know anyone who’s dead wasn’t too old or didn’t deserve it.”
His attention shifted to the note accompanying the trinkets. It stated, “The spirit charm is for Juliette when you find her.” Intrigued, he paused to examine the other trinket. It was a protection amulet. The note said that it was for him.Why the fuck would the old man be giving me something for protection? Maybe there’s something he hasn’t told me about this Martin woman.
The rest of the note simply read, “Juliette is in Jefferson.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Frustration swelled within him, realizing the vastness of Jefferson Parish.Too fucking big to find one person, the old cunt. He angrily tore the remaining portion of the note in half, but as the pieces fell onto the bed, he noticed an address on the back. Relief flooded through him, realizing Papa had provided the very information he sought – Juliette’s address.
Feeling a mix of exhaustion and excitement, Zaiden decided to rest for a couple of hours before heading out to find her. As he lay down, he couldn’t resist researching the significance of the amulet on his phone, hoping to comprehend Papa’s motives for protecting him.
What he read was not what he had expected. The amulet symbolized the need to safeguard someone else in order to protect one’s own life. It served as a stark warning from Papa Samedi, a potent reminder of the consequences should harm befall Juliette. Zaiden had no intention of testing the power of voodoo or harming this woman he had never met.
The words Papa had uttered, “If any harm should come to her, the perpetrator will suffer the most painful consequences before their demise,” echoed relentlessly in Zaiden’s mind, leaving him unsettled and filled with trepidation.
4
Juliette’s thoughts raced as she recalled the events of the day.
* * *
As I paced the living room, my heart pounding, I couldn’t help but feel the walls pressing in on me. Every corner of the house was taken, but I couldn’t bring myself to part with a single item. Each object held a memory, a connection to the life I’d led before my mother’s sudden death.
