Moon Shadow

22

When I returned home, I found Mama Joni waiting outside my house. With tears trailing down her face and disheveled hair, she looked frantic, biting her nails while glancing sideways as if something was after her. Unless she made a deal with a demon and it was about to collect what it was owed, then she had nothing to worry about. My neighborhood had no monster attacks, nor did the supernatural roam around these streets willy nilly. Why? Because I was here. Ha! The perks of being good at my job.

"Mama Joni, what are you doing here?" I asked.

"It's–It's Joni." She rubbed off the tear marks from her face. It looked like she had been crying for a while. The contrast between this version of her and the one who visited my office yesterday was striking. Misery really did poison the soul, huh? Damn.

"What happened?" The twist in my gut told me I wouldn't like what she had to say. There were only two likely scenarios: Joni was dead, or...

"He's missing."

Bingo!

Shit!

Joni's return was too good to be true. Too fucking good. It was like some fairy tale bullshit. And in this world, if something appeared as if it could only happen in fairy tales... run.

Mama Joni had walked into my office with the confidence of a lioness that had just been crowned the queen of the jungle. Her strut, her smile, her gaze: everything about her had said, "Fuck this world and its mortal rules, my boy is back."

There was no way strings weren't attached. Esther had proven she didn't do shit for free. She was a lot of things from what I'd seen of her, and charitable wasn't one of them.

"What do you want me to do?" I truly meant it. I didn't know where to start. Esther had been in the driver's seat the whole time, leading me around like a blind pig to slaughter. With my mind cleared and ready for what she had planned next, I had my defenses up to a hundred because I thought she'd keep attacking me head-on. But this wasn't shocking, though. She had used Brenda, Hussein, and the preachers to send a message to me.

Mama Joni grabbed my hands, tears welling in her eyes like a basin. "I don't know who else to turn to. I'm still coming to terms with everything that has happened. I can't lose him again. Please, save him."

"What if he was never back?"

She clenched her jaw. "No. He's back. I know it." Defiance burned in her eyes like a campfire. "I know my baby. That's him. That's Joni."

The pain in her voice made my heartstrings melt. She had the same look Mama had when she heard about Baba's death—the look where she didn't have to tell you how she felt because her face said it all. I couldn't imagine what was going through Mama Joni's head. It had been an eventful few days for her. From Joni getting possessed, to dying, to coming back to life, then going missing. Having kids seemed like a headache I never wanted to experience. Heck, the dolls were making my head spin enough. I didn't need any more pressure. It'd mess up my skin.

I sighed. "Do you have something of his I can use to find him?"

She smiled before reaching inside her handbag and taking out a Manchester United jersey, handing it over.

"I'll bring him home. You can go now."

"Thank you." She grabbed her bicycle leaning on my house's wall and rode off.

When she was out of sight, I clicked my tongue, having forgotten to ask her how she knew where I lived. Maybe she asked around? Some of my neighbors loved telling people I lived here. It was like some sort of lifetime achievement for them. Pricks. They had no regard for my privacy.

Entering my home, I found the dolls in the living room, watching the TV.

"What's that?" Denzel asked, pointing at the jersey.

"It belongs to Joni. His mother wants me to find him."

"Joni's alive?" Ebony asked.

"Yes. I forgot to tell you?"

"You did."

I shrugged.

"How did he come back?" Honey asked.

"Esther."

The three dolls groaned in annoyance, making me laugh. They were sick of the necromancer as much as I was. This was why I didn't regret giving off over a decade of my life to birth them; they understood me more than anyone else.

I walked to the center of the living room and sat on the floor. The dolls joined me. Sprawling the jersey between us, I closed my eyes and spat on my palms. I rubbed my hands together before spreading them apart, pulling the spit apart like strings and throwing it on the jersey. With the snap of my fingers, the jersey lit on fire.

"That's nasty," Ebony said.

"It always is," I replied.

Magic was never pretty. A lot of spells needed bodily fluids to work. You needed to have the stomach to get into this line of work. I wouldn't trade it for anything else in the world.

The jersey burned into fiery images of two people. I recognized one of them as Joni. He sat on a chair, his arms and legs bound by rope while surrounded by familiar gravestones. Kinondoni Makaburini.

"Is that..." Ebony didn't finish her sentence, pointing at the model-like figure beside Joni.

"Esther." She was like a mosquito who wouldn't leave me alone until I killed it. And I will.

"Hello, Binti," Esther's fiery projection said with a distorted voice, startling me. She shouldn't have known I was looking at her. Maybe she had a magic ability that allowed her to know when someone was spying on her? A nice trick to have, if so.

"Why did you take Joni?" I asked.

"Why else? Because he's mine." She chuckled.

I knew it! Joni was never truly back. She must've been controlling him the whole time. Damn, that's fucked up. Mama Joni thought she had her son back. She insisted. I knew it was too good to be true. The last time I was at her house, Pastor Hans had to console her after informing her of Joni's death. I wasn't looking forward to the sequel. Especially now that I'd have to do it alone. It would destroy her. Nothing killed a person more than hope. Losing a child twice in a matter of days? Damn.

"I'm coming for you. Tonight, we end this," I said.

"I expect nothing less from the great Voodoo Queen."