ZombiePalooza - Anthology

#TeamFantasy Pt. III - @AllanFisher's "Claudia Santoro"

"Claudia Santoro and the Spell of the Living Dead"

by AllanFisher

My name is Claudia Santoro and, in case you hadn't figured it out, I am a witch. I wish I could say I was a great and powerful witch, but that would be a lie. I grew up in the tiny village of Monte Obscuro in Mexico with my father whom I call Poppi. Monte Obscuro was a magical village. No-majos, people you would call Muggles, were not welcome and a simple spell was used to keep them away. For centuries the children of Monte Obscuro were home schooled in the magical arts, but by the time I was born, learning magic had become secondary to the more important lessons needed to scratch out a living so far from civilization.

That being the case, the last Great Wizard of Monte Obscuro, Hector "The Eclipse" Prieto died way back in 1738. According to legend, Hector was so powerful he could move the sun and moon. He used his great magic to help the villagers crops grow by making the sun shine in the middle of the night and hid our village in darkness to protect it from desperados. As a child, I remember my mother would tell me stories of his amazing feats and I would go to sleep and dream of being a great wizard.

But that all changed when the Gazey Brothers came to Monte Obscuro. Ferdinand and Trulo Gazey were drug dealers, and the drug they dealt was Covfefe... also known as Magic Dust. Covfefe was a new magic drug, created by the dark wizard Salazar deep in the Amazon. It had the effect of enhancing magical abilities in weak wizards and even giving magical abilities to No-Majos. The downside was that it was highly addictive. Your first hit of covfefe could make you magical for days, but the more you used it the shorter the effect. Eventually, the user would only get magical powers for a few minutes before they needed another fix. Even more worrisome, was not knowing what the extent of the effect might be. While most No-Majo's usually had quite pathetic magic even under the effects of Covfefe, sometimes the drug unlocked incredible abilities, and that kind of power in untrained hands could be deadly. I should know.

The Gazey's wanted to use Monte Obscuro as a covfefe plantation. The protection spell that kept no-majos away from the village was perfect to help them hide their operation and they promised they would make everyone rich beyond their wildest dreams. My mother was one of the first to stand up to them... she was also the first to die.

Mothers' death wasn't the last, others came out against the Gazey's but in the end, it was no use. Finally, my father's best friend Luis Corredor came to our tiny house in the middle of the night and gave us a choice. "Come with me to America or spend the rest of your life eating the Gazey's shit... but just remember...if you have to eat shit, best not to nibble. Bite, chew, swallow, repeat. It goes quicker."

Poppi chose freedom.

Twelve hours later we were chugging along the blacktop in Poppi's little white VW camper van, with the engine sounding just like a broken sewing machine. We had all of the windows open and Poppi was driving. I had my bare feet up on the dashboard. He always hated that.