Chapter 4

The Witch Doc made the wrong kind of deal with the wrong kind of man.

Lucille helped Daisy into the room while the girl was still crying as if she had found that Jermey was dead at that moment, and the shock of his death caused her to break down. Lucille sat her on the bed, holding her hand and sitting next to her, trying to calm her down, while Charon looked down at the food scattered across the floor. He huffed before picking up the plates, setting them off to the side to allowed Stanely to start cleaning them, and shutting the door.

                “It’s okay,” Lucille said, “I think.” She looked dead at Charon, who shrugged a little, having no idea what to do about this crying girl other than to chew on his cigar and wish for something to eat. Well, in truth, he wanted something hard to drink. He really could use a hard drink.

                Lucille took a deep breath, letting Daisy hold onto her hand. She wasn’t sure what to do, but when Lucille looked down at the lovely girl’s hand, she noticed something odd about it. On the other side of the hand, the wrist, was a tattoo. She couldn’t tell what the ink was, but there was a hint of it.

                She wanted to flip her hand, but instead, she held onto her and asked, “How did you know Jermey?”

                “We played together,” she said, not looking at them. “We weren’ meant to, but we did.”

                Charon leaned against the walls near the window and glanced outside to see a few trucks pull up into the main office. It was dark enough for their headlights to burn like torches, and they might as well have come in blasting their horns. He watched men jump out of the back, and others emerge from the cabs. They all rushed towards the office.

                “Why weren’t you meant to play with him?”

                “He is a Hades,” she said, shaking her head, “they are cursed by Mr. Saturday.”

                Charon looked away from the window at the words Mr. Saturday and rolled the cigar to another side of his mouth.

                “The Hades’ great-great-great-grandfather,” Daisy said, “was a Witch Doctor from the old country, brought with him his medicines, and all his wicked power. He feared dyin’ knowin’ he would only end up in the pits. So, he went lookin’ for a way to cheat death, found Mr. Saturday with his Shadow friends, and cheated the Voodoo Man in a game of dice. Saturday cursed his whole bloodline for the deed.”

                “What was the curse?” Charon asked.

                Daisy didn’t look at him. “They were doomed to be hated for their blood,” she said, “and people would come to them for their medicine, but the hate would run deep in the world like roots of sin.”

                “Nothing else?” Charon asked.

                Daisy looked up at him, locking eyes with the old man, and said, “The Hades firstborn child always belonged to Mr. Saturday. He would take the boys, not the girls, and use their organs for his Black Voodoo.”

                “Like he would kill them?” Lucille asked, looking between them.

                “Cut them open,” Daisy said, “while they still were breathin’, they said it took days.”

                “Good Lord,” Lucille gasped, covering her mouth. Stanely was still getting his fill of the food when Charon noticed the cat’s ears shot up. He jerked his head up, looking back at the door, and Charon looked out at the window to see the group of men, a lot of them, gathering together before they started to head this way.

                “Jermey was a sin eater,” Daisy said, “he saved my life from a fever, some say a demon, but to do so, the fever took over him. In the weeks to come before Saturday, when he was due to take him from the Hades clan, Jermey fell ill and died.”

                She dropped her head, shaking it.

                “We buried him,” Daisy said, “Emelina and I. We hid his bones from Saturday.”

                “And Emelina came running to the circus,” Charon said, heading for the door.

                “I didn’ know where she went,” she said, “I swear I didn’ until I saw the poster, and -“

                “You told Saturday?” Lucille asked.

                “He was threatenin’ my pa,” she said and started to cry even harder. “I didn’ tell him where the bones were, I swear it, I didn’. God, forgive me. Jermey, please, I’m so sorry for all of this.”

                “It’s okay,” Lucille said, “we came here to handle it.” She patted her on the back.

                “The Witch Doctor,” Daisy said, taking Lucille’s hands and looking her dead in the face, “he’s still in the swamp. He hides there, but he’s not human; his curse was different, but death won’ come for him. Heaven said he was too sinful to be forgiven, and Hell sent him out. He can help. He knows how to find Saturday.”

                Charon opens the door, stepping outside in the growing, deep night.

                “You have to find him,” she said to Lucille, as Stanley jumped onto the bed and hid behind Lucille at the voices from outside. “You have to put Jermey back to rest.”

                “We will, Daisy, we will.”

                “Can I help you?” Charon asked, and Lucille heard the tone in his voice. It was a dark tone she knew well, but the men, the dozen or so who gathered in front of the cabin, had no idea they were on the edge of losing their lives if things didn’t go right. She jumped to her feet, looking down at Daisy and turning back to the front door.

                “Get out of here,” Lucille said. “Use the back door, run.”

                “What?” Daisy asked as she got to her feet and saw the men outside carrying rifles and clubs. She gasped, shaking her head. “No, they can’, they don’ understand.”             

                “It doesn’t matter,” Lucille said, “things are going to go wrong, and you need to run. We’ll stop Saturday, I swear it, now go, Daisy, run.”

                Daisy looked once more out of the front door, not being able to see faces, but she didn’t need to see anyone’s face to know what was on their mind. She nodded at Lucille before she hugged her and fled out the back door. Lucille watched her go before she picked up Stanley, carrying him outside to stand next to Charon to face down the mob of angry people.