Hi All,It is time for another WEP challenge! Woot! The ladies at the WEP are amazing hosting these challenges throughout the year...my hat's off to you all! This October's theme is THE SCREAM!
So appropriate, don't you think?
There are some incredible entries this month, so I do hope you plan to visit the other authors at the WEP site, who put their talents to the test. You will not be disappointed.
My entry is an excerpt from my current work in progress MOMMY KAY. If you recall, I had submitted an early snippet a few years back from this memoir for the ROADS LESS TRAVELED prompt and won! If you have the time and would like to familiarize yourself with more of Mommy Kay here is the link.
Before you read my entry, I'd like to give you a bit of backstory. Mommy Kay and her daughter, Kim are visiting the impoverished Island of Haiti in the early 70s, the week after the Dictator, "Papa Doc" Duvalier died and his son was newly sworn in as President for Life.
During their visit to Haiti, Kim mainly stayed inside the hotel. Mommy Kay would be gone for hours at a time. She was up to something, and Kim knew what it was. Mommy Kay had a new obsession. She wanted to experience a Haitian Voodoo ritual.
I hope you enjoy this little teaser at 997 words.
The now, fifteen-year-old Kimmie tells the story...she didn't want any part of this trip, but Mommy ALWAYS got her way.
Helplessness wasn’t an emotion familiar to me. For the first time in my life, Mommy wasn’t there. The walls in our suite seemed to press in on me from all four sides. The next few hours dragged as if carrying them on my back.
The door slammed.
“Kimmie,” Mommy called out.
A moment later she entered my room, wearing what looked liked white bedsheets. A turban covered her head.
“Put this on.” She dropped a bundle of the same white sheeting onto the bed. “We must blend in.”
I slipped on clothing and wrapped up my head in a similar turban.
“Fantastic. You’re so tan—you’ll pass for a native.”
“I wish I can say the same about you— you’re as white as that sheeting. You’ll never blend in.”
“Oh, stop worrying and try to have a good time.”
Mommy stepped over to the dresser and stuffed a wad of cash inside her bra. “Antoine should be here soon.”
“The sun is sinking fast. When do we leave?”
“As soon as it’s dark, around six o’clock. He’s meeting us at the back of the hotel by the kitchen entrance.”
Mommy paced a few minutes, then glanced out the window. “It’s time.”
My heart skipped a beat.
The hotel seemed eerily quiet. We met no one on the elevators, or at the back entrance.
Antoine was waiting for us in a beat-up jalopy. “Welcome my friends, ” he said with a slight quiver.
Mommy sat next to him in the front seat, and I slid into the back. Next to me was a large bottle of rum and a box of Cuban cigars. Antoine accelerated and off we went into the night. The twitchy manner in which he drove didn’t help the situation. Sweat beaded on my face.
“Where exactly are we going, Antoine?” I asked after a long pause of silence.
“Porte au Prince.”
“I figured that. Where exactly?”
He didn’t answer.
We drove on the main road and arrived downtown. The stench from the garbage in the streets barely masked the musky smell of human sweat and the lingering of cooked food. Several people sat on the sidewalks outside their front doors; their haughty expressions watched us as we drove by. We turned up a side street. At the top of the hill, we stopped abruptly.
“We get out here,” Antoine whispered.
“Kimmie, bring the rum and cigars. They’re presents for the High Priest.”
My shaky hands gathered them up, and I exited the car. Antoine and Mommy stopped, facing a peeling red door.
“We go in here.” Antoine turned the handle.
He entered.
Mommy followed with her head lowered. I wondered what she was feeling. She moved normally; however, my legs shook as I stepped inside the dimly lit room. Flickering candles from a ceiling chandelier created dark shadows that performed a savage dance on the rough stained walls.
Hundreds of scattered bones, entrails, and piles of white feathers littered the floor. A pungent smell of years of decay, Cajun incense, and dried blood loomed heavily in the air.
I dug my fingers into Mommy’s fleshy arm. “Are you sure about this?” I whispered and pointed to a glistening section of a fragmented wall. “That looks like fresh blood.”
“Yes, I see it.” She shrugged away her arm.
Antoine moved a few paces ahead of us.
“It’s time.” He pointed his finger up. “Follow me.”
Unidentified things squelched under our feet as we made our way toward a staircase at the back of the room. Antoine disappeared in a sea of creaks as he ascended. Mommy followed, squeezing between the walls of the narrow entrance. It was my turn now. I sucked in a deep breath and held it.
Thump, thump, thump, pounded inside of my head as I climbed each of the rickety stairs. My heart threatened to tear away from my chest.
Mommy’s breathing increased as we turned up the next flight.
Then the next.
As we confronted the final flight, she stopped, clutching her heaving chest. “I-I need to catch my breath—go—a-head, Kim-mie.”
“No way.”
“Go—”
Antoine stared down at us. “We must not keep him waiting.” His voice cracked.
I stepped over Mommy and continued climbing. My legs grew heavy as if hundred-pound weights were attached to them. Mommy’s stomping feet and raspy breaths kept up with my slower pace.
At the top, hundreds of candles flickered in the room. Beams of moonlight filtered through the five large open windows. A soft chanting and a distant drumbeat played, as a two-story shadow appeared across a fraying, sheer drape.
Mommy stepped into the room, panting.
“He is in our presence. Keep silent until he addresses you,” Antoine whispered.
A massive figure stepped out of the shadows. Yellow light glinted off a jewel-encrusted medallion and rows of heavy gold chains. His frame cloaked in black robes stood rigid, and on top of his head sat an elaborate plumed headdress.
The whites of his eyes shone through midnight blue-black skin.
“I know what you seek. Leave your offerings.”
I couldn’t move. His terrifying presence nailed me to the floor.
Antoine pried the rum and cigars from my fingers and bowed, placing the offerings at his feet.
A split second later, he disappeared.
“We must follow him,” Antoine said, as he took hold of Mommy’s arm and dragged her through the drape.
I was convinced Antoine planned to have us sacrificed. And me, still a virgin. How appropriate. The beating drums grew louder and more sporadic. Or was it my heart? I wasn’t quite sure.
“Come, Kimmieeeee!” Mommy’s voice echoed through the rising of the heretic chants.
I willed myself to move. My left foot slid a few inches, followed by my body.
And then, a dusty wind swirled around me as if conjured up by some strange dark force. It swept me through the curtain, my silent scream following.
Tagline: A tied-up Kimmie awaits her fate, as drums keep beating while her captor approaches a tear-stained Mommy, preparing a sacrifice for the Voodoo King.
I hope you enjoyed this teaser. For all of you LEFT hanging, I will post the remainder of the scene in a few days after the link closes... That is the least I can do. Have a Wonderful Weekend everyone!
