what triggered everything,” Leah cried. “Take this. It’ll help out a lot with the pain.”
Jake could barely sit up. He downed the pill without even asking what it was. He looked at her once pretty face. It was purple and swollen . An upper tooth w as missing.
“ Y our shirt is saturated with blood. Let me see your back.”
He agonized as he lifted his shirt. The pain pulsated even harder as the cool air hit all of the sores.
“Holy shit! I need to clean you up. With all of the dried blood it’s hard to see how bad this is.” She went into his bathroom and came back with a damp towel. Once she was finished wiping off his back , the white towel was a filthy reddish-brown color. “This isn’t so bad. You need to take a bath. Nothing some Bactine won’t heal up. And you’re still stuck in the Z oo, right?”
“Yeah. So don’t worry. No gym class. No one will see my back if that’s what you’re thinking,” Jake said with indignation.
“ Shhh . He’s asleep.”
“Don’t you worry about Rhianna ? Look at yourself. Look what he’s done to you. Your brother… He was going to rape you until T.J. stepped in. Wished T.J. would have stepped in for me. Pete took all of my money I worked so hard for . It was my ‘get the fuck outta here’ money. When I’m eighteen…I hate him, Leah. I really hate him.”
“ He takes my money every night. I know how you feel. You just gotta hide it better. Somewhere that’s not here. Your uncle does pay the bills, and keeps things running. Please , no more fights. He’s not all bad. Just when he drinks is all.”
“I’ve gotta bus to catch, so if you don’t mind,” Jake said. He washed up, got dressed, and waited at his bus stop thirty minutes before the bus was scheduled to arrive. He needed to get out of that hellhole. While waiting on the corner he cried. His cries escalated into shrieks with tears falling out of his eyes like rivers. He didn’t know what upset him the most. His mutilated back? Perhaps. It would heal, leaving him the souvenir of scars for the rest of his life. The money? It represented a piece of his freedom he had planned for after turning eighteen years old. And then there was his unadulterated grief. Cancer or not, his m om left him behind to be tortured. One way or another Pete was gonna pay dearly for what he had done.
Chapter 1 0
Lucien Nazaire descended from a legendary line of Caribbean bokors . His great-great-great -great grandfather, Plato the Wizard, was a runaway slave who practiced Obeah, a West Indies form of sorcery . His magic seduced loyal followers and threatened all who got in his way , drawing lots of attention to the wrong people. In 1780 he was convicted of heresy. Plato infamously promised to bring a terrible storm onto the shores of Jamaica by the end of the year right before he was executed . In October of the same year, Jamaica and other nearby islands suffered a deadly hurricane. Plato the Wizard’s secret s were passed on to relatives . Part of his family w as sold off to the St. Domini g ue slave owners , currently known as Haiti and Dominican Republic .
On Lucien’s twentieth birthday, he inherited Pl ato’s generational Obeah and Voodoo secrets. This k nowledge grew exponentially over the centuries . Soon he became an i mportant man in Haiti . A few decades later, l ike his great-great-great-great grandfather, Lucien was indicted for occult rituals and faced with execution . Murder was the official police charge with his motive linked to sorcery. Unlike Plato the Wizard, Lucien had figured out a way to escape. He prayed to Baron Samedi and was last seen running on the beach, and diving in the water, never coming back to shore. Most believed he died in the Caribbean Sea, but some still had doubts. Only a select few of his family members knew he made it to America .
Now, nearing a
Jake could barely sit up. He downed the pill without even asking what it was. He looked at her once pretty face. It was purple and swollen . An upper tooth w as missing.
“ Y our shirt is saturated with blood. Let me see your back.”
He agonized as he lifted his shirt. The pain pulsated even harder as the cool air hit all of the sores.
“Holy shit! I need to clean you up. With all of the dried blood it’s hard to see how bad this is.” She went into his bathroom and came back with a damp towel. Once she was finished wiping off his back , the white towel was a filthy reddish-brown color. “This isn’t so bad. You need to take a bath. Nothing some Bactine won’t heal up. And you’re still stuck in the Z oo, right?”
“Yeah. So don’t worry. No gym class. No one will see my back if that’s what you’re thinking,” Jake said with indignation.
“ Shhh . He’s asleep.”
“Don’t you worry about Rhianna ? Look at yourself. Look what he’s done to you. Your brother… He was going to rape you until T.J. stepped in. Wished T.J. would have stepped in for me. Pete took all of my money I worked so hard for . It was my ‘get the fuck outta here’ money. When I’m eighteen…I hate him, Leah. I really hate him.”
“ He takes my money every night. I know how you feel. You just gotta hide it better. Somewhere that’s not here. Your uncle does pay the bills, and keeps things running. Please , no more fights. He’s not all bad. Just when he drinks is all.”
“I’ve gotta bus to catch, so if you don’t mind,” Jake said. He washed up, got dressed, and waited at his bus stop thirty minutes before the bus was scheduled to arrive. He needed to get out of that hellhole. While waiting on the corner he cried. His cries escalated into shrieks with tears falling out of his eyes like rivers. He didn’t know what upset him the most. His mutilated back? Perhaps. It would heal, leaving him the souvenir of scars for the rest of his life. The money? It represented a piece of his freedom he had planned for after turning eighteen years old. And then there was his unadulterated grief. Cancer or not, his m om left him behind to be tortured. One way or another Pete was gonna pay dearly for what he had done.
Chapter 1 0
Lucien Nazaire descended from a legendary line of Caribbean bokors . His great-great-great -great grandfather, Plato the Wizard, was a runaway slave who practiced Obeah, a West Indies form of sorcery . His magic seduced loyal followers and threatened all who got in his way , drawing lots of attention to the wrong people. In 1780 he was convicted of heresy. Plato infamously promised to bring a terrible storm onto the shores of Jamaica by the end of the year right before he was executed . In October of the same year, Jamaica and other nearby islands suffered a deadly hurricane. Plato the Wizard’s secret s were passed on to relatives . Part of his family w as sold off to the St. Domini g ue slave owners , currently known as Haiti and Dominican Republic .
On Lucien’s twentieth birthday, he inherited Pl ato’s generational Obeah and Voodoo secrets. This k nowledge grew exponentially over the centuries . Soon he became an i mportant man in Haiti . A few decades later, l ike his great-great-great-great grandfather, Lucien was indicted for occult rituals and faced with execution . Murder was the official police charge with his motive linked to sorcery. Unlike Plato the Wizard, Lucien had figured out a way to escape. He prayed to Baron Samedi and was last seen running on the beach, and diving in the water, never coming back to shore. Most believed he died in the Caribbean Sea, but some still had doubts. Only a select few of his family members knew he made it to America .
Now, nearing a
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